📍 Welcome to this week's episode of Beauty Babble. Today we'll be chatting with Megan Lindo, the owner of La Creme de La Skincare Boutique in Penticton, BC. We'll hear about their one of a kind apprenticeship program, get some insights and invaluable advice for those aspiring to become part of our ever evolving beauty industry.

Megan, it's a pleasure to have you on Beauty Babble. Let's kick it off with an intro. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Like, how did your journey begin in the industry? And a 

little bit about your spot.  So I actually, I really love my story. We, and when I say we I'm talking about the ownership group.

So I am in business with my husband, my mom, my dad, and my sister.  And that company actually has seven businesses.  It kicked off with Melt Mineral Spa 13 years ago. which we opened to help a client of ours establish a dream.  We ended up with it. That's a whole big long story we won't get into, but I actually started in the guest services and then also in the marketing side of things.

So that's how I was introduced to the aesthetics and the spa world. And there was actually quite a long time that people would say, Oh, well, are you going to get into doing services? And I was like, no, no, no, no, that's not me. That's not who I am. It eventually became who I am though. I didn't believe in trying to sell people something that I didn't understand.

So I started to learn. We'd go to spa shows, or reps would come in to do training, and I would always sit in on everything. And I realized I had a knack for understanding all the skincare stuff. It just resonated with me, it spoke to me.  I just got it. And eventually that turned into about six and a half years ago, I got my certification for skincare.

So I am a skincare tech and Now I do skincare and facials, and I went from working with Melt to with this lovely family company that we have being able to open up my own little boutique, which is solely skincare based.  That's interesting. 

Now, it is a little unique when you call it a skincare boutique, so it's not quite a full spa, so tell us a little bit about that and how, why did you venture into that, what led you into that concept.

So talk about the concept and then the why behind it, I 

guess.  So the concept is that we're actually a retail store. with a treatment room. We're not, most spas, that's what it is. It's, you have, it's a spa, you're coming in for your spa day, and then there's a little bit of retail. I flipped it, and it was actually inspired by a store in New York  called Blue Mercury and  Quite a few stores in New York actually do this, where they're retail forward, but they have treatment rooms. 

And I looked at that and I just went, this makes so much sense. Because when you are out shopping for skincare, what do we always  kind of do? It's, oh, well, here, smell this, try it on the back of your hand. But you don't get to really test it. You don't get to feel it. You don't get to see how your skin reacts to it.

And we don't have the skin consultation side to it. That has come over the years. You see other places like Sephora and shoppers, they now have little skin scanners and things like that because we know the importance of it. But when we first started Le Creme,  It's, it wasn't very common and it's still not.

So my whole idea was that we could create  a safe shopping space where you could come, you could ask any questions. There was no wrong, no stupid questions. If you had seen an Instagram viral video. And thought maybe it was good for you, like who do you ask?  And then on top of it, we provided the service. So it is this  kind of holistic combination of 80 percent is your home care, 20 percent is us, and we're going to marry it together really beautifully.

And it doesn't have to be that, well, we're a spa, we only have so much retail space, we have one skincare line for you to choose from.  We are going to find exactly what your skin needs. And that's actually how I came up with the name for the facials. That's why it's your facial. You can put your name into it and it is your facial.

It is custom specific to you.  So even if you don't have a facial booked, we have a demo table as well so that you can, if you've got 15 minutes, 20 minutes, We have it always set up, warm towels going, you come in, we do a consultation, we have our Vizia skin scanner, you lay on the table, we're gonna do a little mini facial so that you can actually feel the products that we're considering for you,  and then you're, you're taken care of in a, a much more well rounded way. 

That's very interesting. I found that interesting when we were chatting. So, now when it comes to training and your staff,  So what do you look for then? Because that is definitely, yes, they need to understand skin care and that, but you're starting out kind of that first front line, which is sales  and talking to clients.

So how do you find that in our industry?  What did you, did you come up with a concept or how to train them? I mean, you don't have to share all your little secrets, but, you know, if you share a little bit.  

I'm not a believer in gatekeeping either. I think our industry thrives when we actually share our secrets.

Because there's, there's more than enough business for all of us. There's more than enough clients for all of us. And so hiding behind paywalls. I mean, yes, we have to make money too. I'm not saying don't make some money, but there are moments when sharing, sharing is caring.  So the apprenticeship program actually came about because of the spa.

This started with MELT, and it was because we were consistently getting these You know, people out of school  and they still didn't know anything,  you know, we still had to do three months of training and it was almost from scratch. We had to do a lot of explanations, we had to do, you know,  and I looked at it and I'm like, you,  you spent how much money on school,  you learned the basics of everything only to learn you don't like pedicures, you don't like feet,  you don't like waxing, you don't like massage. 

So what did, what did that investment get you?  And we just, we looked at it and went, there's, there's got to be a different way. There's got to be a better way.  And with the way that certification goes in BC,  I looked at it and went, okay. So it's not the best. We don't have a great governing board. People can kind of,  you know, do almost whatever they want. 

Let's use that to our advantage.  I'm a huge believer in education. I'm a huge believer in certification.  But also if we can niche it, if we can  train someone, if we can work with someone,  help them find which part of this industry they love, nurture that,  and then help them find the courses to get certified.

So that they are really, really good at that one specific thing, or two specific things, you know, you find different things you love.  Why don't we do that? We're already training these people  practically from scratch, even when they come out of school.  Let's save them some money, find their passions, niche it down for them, and create,  you know, really, really skilled people from the jump, from the get go.

So when we're looking for people, it's, it's attitude and passion is really what it is.  You can teach skill.  You can't. You can teach skill. You can't teach attitude, and you can't teach passion. So if they've got the right attitude, they fit our culture, they are willing to learn, they want to learn,  we'll teach them. 

So how do 

you, are they just coming to you? Or are you, is it word of mouth? Is it, has it, has it just developed to that? How did you begin all 

that process? Yeah, we just started creating flyers, sending out emails to our clients saying we've started an apprenticeship program. If you've got a kid in high school who doesn't know what they want to go do,  come, come work with us. 

We start people in our, they kind of have my journey. We start them in guest services and also in our laundry room.  They get a feel for the spa, they get a feel for what the kind of daily routine looks like, they understand how to set up the rooms sanitization is the first thing we teach, they go through our full sanitization program so that they understand how important it is to clean the tools, how to properly clean the tools, and they learn guest services.

Answering the phone, how to do bookings, taking care of people,  because if you can't do that, we're in the service industry, we are here to care for people.  If you can't take care of someone who's having one of the crappiest days and just wants to yell at you on the phone because their appointment got screwed up for whatever reason,  how are you going to care for them when your hands are on them? 

So I find that starting people out from there and then because they get a sense of kind of what's going on, they start to sit in on services, we have them shadow our long time  employees, they start to get their hands on people, we start to do training,  we start with theory. We do a bit of hands on, and as they start to get a feel for what it is that they could want to do, would like to do,  that's what we nurture. 

And then we've created partners, one of them being Beauty Cult, which I'm so excited for, that have these niched certification programs, so that then they are properly certified.  Okay, 

so now let's get into, oh sorry, Doreen, go ahead, go ahead. 

Okay, yeah, I just have one question. 

Yeah. Do you have, 

is there like a time frame for each one?

How do you decide is it just based on performance? Like, do you do reviews? How do you decide how  they move through the 

program?  So that we have  learned over time because when we started this, It was very like,  we'll see how this goes,  because we were creating something from nothing, we didn't have a blueprint, we didn't have, you know, something to be able to just kind of pull a manual out and go, yep, this is, this is how it's gonna go.

So over time, yes, it has.  started to get a little bit more developed. We also, this is, we're having the the parent company as I call it. Cause it is my parents. They're the ones who have the big company and then we have all the other companies underneath it. They have an HR  team now who I'm absolutely in love with.

Love, love, love them. So that's helped because now we have this HR department that can help us with creating all of these manuals, creating the timelines. They help us with the.  Communication between us and the girls  and so that's really helped,  but there's not a super, super strict timeline on it because again,  sometimes you just, you need to just be in that safe space. 

So we have limits to what they can do.  So if it's, you've done certain amounts of training, you know, you're, you're trained to do this, but. You haven't gone for your certification yet because that is on them. We don't pay for that.  What we offer is that it's a paid apprenticeship. This is a job. You come into work, you do your job. 

So we don't pay for the certification. That's entirely up to them. So if they don't get their certification,  it stalls  there.  And so sometimes people, they just stay in our guest services department. They really like it there. And they don't end up. moving forward, or they only get their waxing certification.

So they're not as booked as some of the other girls because they're limited on the services that they can do.  It really is kind of an individual one on one timeline as we have people going through it.  That may change. I'm always open to change, you know, as you see things develop and you have to get a little bit more  strict with things, but at this time it, it really is catered to the individual person and their needs. 

Well, that's really interesting. Now, so let's say somebody does say, yes, I really want to get my waxing certification  now  before, like when you first started all this, how did you go about, did you suggest, did you look into what, what education would be best? Like, because I mean, now there's a lot more a mix of online and in person, but. 

Before there wasn't. So did they have to leave work for a little while, go finish their certification and come back? Or how did you find that? Because then they're not also being paid. So can they afford that plus a course? Like how, what was the, what was the background on that? Like. What was the outcome of 

that?

And again, this is, they're kind of almost doing like I did it first. So I, I had found a facial course. It was a six week course to just get my base facial certification. And that school had  little niche.  And so that's where we started. So some of them were in the evening, so they could still work and then they could go for the evening classes.

And again, because we're about doing our best to support our team it would be a conversation of, okay, so you're at this point, you're going to go do this certification. It's going to be six weeks. How do we still support you? It wasn't that, you know, it's just, okay. Bye, little birdie. Have a nice day.

See you when you're back with your certificate.  It, it is. Okay, so if the classes are from  Tuesday to Friday or Tuesday to Saturday,  you know, are there half days? Like, where can we still support that you can still work? You're still getting a paycheck. We, again, it became this very individualized, what do you need and how can we support you? 

Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't, because again, it comes down to attitude,  and you can't train attitude.  So it's been, it's been a learning experience for us. I'm by no means sitting over here being like, I have found the holy grail of training staff.  But 

have you, oh sorry, I was going to just ask you really quick.

So on that, like,  how has the, how have they reacted to this? Because of course it's new, like, is there, what challenges do they face, do you find? If they, if they chose to do this, this, this idea that you're doing, I think is an amazing concept because it will fill quite a few people's niches, right? And how they would go about their education and training.

But what are some things that you think were maybe came across challenging that you could think of  for this, this way of doing things? Because we're in a culture where you go to school full time and you finish and then you go about your, Your work, right? So what are some challenges that if you could tell anyone what you know, I mean, this is a lot of years you have under your belt, or maybe there's a spot.

They're thinking, Oh, I love this concept. I want to do it.  You know, I know you have a lot of years of it and you're still learning from it as you shared kindly.  What's some things that you could tell somebody if you were thinking to do this?  Be mindful of these things. And yes, attitude is one, but maybe be more specific.

What does that mean by attitude as well? 

Really being specific, one of the mistakes that I made  off the jump was not being completely clear that when it came to their training that it was non negotiable for them to move forward on the training. There would be points in time where it would be like, okay, I've given you everything I can give you.

I can't certify you. We need to now put you through the certification.  And all of a sudden people would be like, oh, well, who's paying for that?  It was always you. If you were going to go to school, you were going to have to pay to go to school. You've been paid to learn.  Oh,  oh, I didn't know that.  Never mind.

I'm no longer interested.  

So do you put it in paper now? Like, do you as a contract almost? Yeah, that'd 

be fair to say.  It's, it's much more clearly laid out.  If we do  payment programs, because we will, we will help with that too, where it's, we'll put up the money up front and then you can pay us back or we'll do 50 50 or something like that, because again, we're trying to be very supportive, but it's a lot more clearly defined  on,  if you, it's non negotiable, it never was negotiable that you could continue to work and do services without a certificate. 

Just because there's not really a regulating body in BC doesn't mean that I'm one of the people who's like, yep, just do whatever you want. No, I'm huge on certification.  Take the, the gray areas that we have, use them to our advantage, but you never stop educating, you never stop getting certified.  Every year, I myself am all like, I'm looking at courses, I'm looking at certifications, I'm going, how do I continue to just advance my knowledge?

And keep being  certified in the industry that I'm in.  And, yeah, that was the biggest one.  You'd get girls who would be like, Oh,  never mind. No longer interested. Didn't want to have to actually pay for it. Thought this was a free ride.  So 

you really think it was all just, it was actually about the money. So do you think because it was money focused, that did they really have the passion for it then?

Yeah, and that comes out eventually.  

We know that you need passion in this industry to be staying 

in 

it that long. Absolutely. The other one too is  when they really get into it. So people would, would start out  and then when it would really get into like, okay, we're going to show you what a day of clients is like, you know, you're trained enough to be able to do basic facials or 30 minutes or consultations, thing like that.

Like we're going to get you booked.  And it was.  This is hard work.  I can't, like, how do,  how do, like, booked like this? I can't do this. I can't, and stipulations would start coming up. I can only do, I can only do three a day.  How are you gonna make money then?  Like, you still, you have to be able to, like,  no, that's not, that's not how it works. 

This industry is not, I mean, unless you can figure out how to create the thousand dollar facial,  Right? Which,  you know. It's out there. It's out there. I'm sure it's out there.  

Okay, I have a devil's advocate question for you here. Yes.  I think your last answer kind of like gave me a little bit of insight, but  What is, if they have to go do certification afterwards,  what is the pro of doing an apprenticeship program first, other than, you know, I get that they're learning and they're being paid to learn, but where is the what is the advantage to the person who is seeking it?

To be part of the industry. Why not just go in to get a certification first?  

Because a lot of times people go to get certification, they pay out a ton of money to do it and then realize they hate it.  Or they only want to do three facials a day. Or they only want to do three facials a day. It's, it's flipping the script on its head.

The advantage to the person is that you, it's try before you buy.  You get, you have an opportunity to come into the industry because a lot of times we go into the industry with rose colored glasses, you know, we see the Instagram videos and we see how, you know, pretty it is and oh, it's so much fun because I'm just, I'm going to facial and we don't have a Actual concept of what this industry is.

This is not an easy industry. This is not a fluffy industry  and so  it just,  I mean, if you want to go and spend your, you know, 15, 20, 000 to get certified. And then do nothing with it.  No, no hate. Absolutely. Go, go and do that. But if you want to see what it's like first, if you want to see what it's like  to be in the industry, to work in the environment, to be able to kind of test out the services and be able to niche.

We talk about niching down in marketing all the time.  We, you, you see it from so many different marketing experts. If you niche, if you niche down, you'll be more successful.  So why? Would you broad spectrum your education  so that you know that you don't like something? When you could kind of try it out,  realize you don't like it, and niche yourself down.

So you niche your education, you can get really specific on your education,  and,  in my opinion, not waste time and not waste money.  I love that. 

And I think too, what, what you're saying gives like a real behind the scenes because I think you can do like, you know, shadow day or whatever, you're not really getting the ins and outs of being part of the industry.

So you're really getting that preview  of what it's going to be like. And if you want to do 

it or not. And that's where we do, right? The back end of how it functions, the day to day and working with other staff who are going through the same things that you are. And then let's say someone booked and they're behind and you're like, you know, tick tock, what's going on, Kathy?

Like what's taking you? So they, they get to see the components of a well oiled machine.  Diversity is one, maybe not, or we'll call it, you know, the day to day of things that can come up in our industry of all female based place. It can be a little bit, you know, ups and downs with emotions and stuff, which is just part of it, especially when you're passionate about something.

So I think it's a good point to say you get the inside view of how this really works and how you make a career out of it. And then once you're certified.  I mean, you're offering a certification, they, I mean, I know this isn't maybe what you want, but at the same time, like, maybe they need to move and grow, or maybe they move, and they move somewhere else.

At least they have a certification and a handful experience now, which people don't realize. What I just the other day I had someone pop in and they're like looking for a job still. They've been out of school for a while and they took an advanced facial medical course.  Everyone wants two years minimum experience to be hired. 

Where do you get it from when you just said school with no background? So there's a lot of factors to this that I don't think sometimes people are really looking at the niche behind this. It's not for everyone, that's fair for sure. And it's not always supported by some places either, so it's a very interesting way of doing it, and I think there's room for that other than, was there two provinces that are regulated in Saskatchewan and Manitoba?

That probably wouldn't apply very well because there's regulated. But it's the same idea, like in Saskatchewan, they do certification, but then they have to journeyman for two years, I think, and I think the same thing with Winnipeg, if I'm, I mean, Manitoba, if I'm not mistaken, there's like, you go through school, but then the exam is the final, like, hairstyle.

Same idea, but there's amount of hours that they have to be putting into it as well. So I find that interesting that it's just another way to flip the switch as you say and then you, you really can dive into it. I know a lot of people have asked us that it's not, it's not all fun and games all the time.

Like you said, it's not all fluff.  You make it look like you do that. You've done a well, a good job, right? If people are coming in and it feels like fluff in here. Wow. Bravo.  

It's definitely not fluff. And I mean the other advantage too is who you're learning from.  It's  when you're not kind of broad spectruming, again, if you're, because you only have, when you're in school, you get a chunk of time and we're going to learn pedicures, we're going to learn manicures, we're going to learn. 

When you kind of do it this way, because again, we're niching.  When I'm talking about skincare with you, I'm talking about everything I've learned.  Like you're getting  Because we have the time for it. We have the time to be able to just have conversations and we do our book work and I have you watch as I'm doing a facial and I'm explaining everything.

So it's a lot more in depth because we have the time to do it. At school you don't necessarily have the time to do it. It's here's the book, this is what we have to get through because this is what you need to know to get your certification. But they always tell you in school that you have to keep learning and keep going.

learning more.  Okay, so let's keep learning, let's keep learning more. And  we have plenty of girls still coming straight out of school.  They just, like I said, we usually end up spending about three to six months still training them  because they didn't get to get their hands. 

I was going to say after that, because as they come out of school, when you say that they're not understanding that they don't know everything.

So what are, what are some things that maybe you could share saying it's not wrong you went to school, but you have to understand it's going to take time to learn a little bit more. And is that, do you find the learning of connecting the dots, we'll call it with everything? Or is it  understanding just your protocol?

Or what is it that they're  Like, that you find is missing, I guess you could say, in the system of education when they're coming out to you. Let's stick with facials on this one. 

It's the hands on.  Oh, skin analysis,  understanding. Skin analysis, touch facial massage.  Your basic protocol, anything beyond your basic protocol, and the ability to  think outside of a protocol.

So at Le Creme,  we do time based,  and when I say time based, I mean 100 percent it is about the time you have. So,  we're really big on our consultations. We have to do consultations, have to know the skin. I have clients who come in and they will say to me, what are we doing today? And I go, I don't know yet.

I need to see, like, lay on my table. I need to see what's going on with your skin.  I have the things that I know their skin needs,  like things we've done in the past. They might need something a little bit new. They might need something a little different. And being time based allows me to go, you know what you need today?

Now I'm about to pull something completely and totally out of.  thin air here, so don't quote me on this being an actual protocol, but just so you get a sense of what we can do. I can look at them and go, you know what we're going to do? We're going to do a dermaplaning chemical peel photo facial.  And we don't have to have the awkward conversation of  it's going to be an extra 50, 40 because I really think it'll be good for you.

No, if it's good for their skin and I have the time to do it, I have priced it in a way that I've covered all my bases. Whatever their skin needs, they can do. That requires  thinking  outside the protocol.  You don't get that until you've been in our industry.  And so, coming from the apprenticeship side, I'm starting from that side. 

Teach basic protocol. I teach ingredients. I teach  formulation.  Skin.  What is going to work here? What's going to work there?  We look at the protocols of so many different lines. Because we carry so many different lines. And I go, where do you see the crossover?  Where do you see where you could maybe mix and match?

Where do you see? And then so, take the protocols and then think outside them.  We don't have that 

for girls.  

We don't have that for people. Sorry, I don't mean to not just go off. We don't have it for people outside of school. The biggest one that we see is waxing.  People do not go to schools to get waxed. 

That's fair. When we have girls who come straight out of school, did you learn Brazilian waxing? Yep! We learned it!  How many did you do?  Oh, I've never actually done one.  Great, you're not touching someone for about alone in a room for at least three months.  You're basically going through our waxing apprenticeship program.

Anyways, even though you've learned it all, you spent the money, you did the time,  you didn't get to touch anybody.  I can't believe I'm in a room with a client right now. We made that mistake once.  Yeah, right. There were scissors involved.  It wasn't good.  Oh, dear. 

So that is like a, sorry to interrupt you, like you have your own tutor teaching you diving in.

So you have a base understanding of, I don't know, let's say it's math, but you have now someone who's actually going to dive into that deeper. So your apprenticeship is like having your, your personal tutors throughout this whole  Yeah, 

like a mentorship to like, it's like an apprentice slash mentorship is what it sounds like to me.

Cause even like just picking your school, how do you pick which one to go? How do you pick which program? But you can guide based on what you've seen other people go through. So I think that's pretty valuable. We talk about that a lot. The, the lack of mentorship after you've done your certification, like who do you turn to for help if you have a question or.

And sometimes it's not always available to you where you work, because you could be the only one on shift, or you could, whatever, whatever the 

case may be.  I tell the girls all the time,  because I,  being on the ownership side too, like, I do one week in Penticton, I do one week in Port Coquitlam, I travel, I've started doing, You know, I've expanded myself into working with other companies and doing trainings and things like that, so I'm not even always there.

But I tell them, I'm like, all you have to do is look at my schedule. My schedule's, it's on the Google Calendar, it's on our booking calendar, I put everything there.  If you put yourself on my schedule, you're on my day. All you gotta do is go in there, lock off the time, I'll see it. You don't have to ask permission,  you don't have to, you know, hope I make the time for you, I will always make the time for you.

Just do it.  Check your schedule, check my schedule, book yourself in just like an appointment, whatever you want to talk about. I was in Disney World and had the girls texting me being like I have a skincare question. I have a facial question.  I've got data. I've got roaming.  Welcome 

to ownership. Welcome to ownership.

Welcome to ownership. Learning law. Exactly. 

Exactly. Yeah. But it just, yeah, it's true. We don't have a lot of post school mentorship.  And. If there is someone offering mentorship, it's usually way out of the price range of someone just out of school.  And again,  everyone needs to make money. Absolutely.

Mentorship programs have their place and we have to charge what we're worth.  But I think there's two sides to it. There also needs to be a little less gatekeeping. There needs to be a little less secret keeping.  If we're not more inclusive of sharing our information and being open with the new people coming up,  then as we get older, us oldies in the industry are just going to become bitter and complaining about how the new generation doesn't know anything.

How are they supposed to know anything if we don't share it?  So 

true. I love that. 

We're just doing it to ourselves. So, it's I like to be an open book. And I will happily say, I don't know.  I do not know everything. But what you also have access to when you're working with me and you're working with the companies is  we have developed relationships over years. 

And so I have people I can call. I have people I can introduce you to. I have people I can ask.  And I'm not gatekeeping those either. 

Yeah, so important for people to understand that, especially nowadays when people are going off on their own right out of school. Mm hmm. And they don't have, I think that's the biggest challenge and they don't realize that when they're taking it, because they see Instagram and it looks lovely.

I'm beating up Instagram, I don't mean to, but, right? Like, they don't, it's fluff. They're not seeing what it takes. 

And we have that saying out there, right? That it's, we're comparing our nitty gritty to everybody else's highlight reels.  And that's what Instagram, that's what social media is and Instagram is and it is pretty and it's fun and I love doing content days and it's great and  but when it really comes down to it.

There's more than 90 seconds of a reel in a day.  There's eight hours. There's 12. That could be 

your workday 90 

seconds  Forget three facials a day. I'm gonna do a 90 second facial  that pays for my month  

Well, that was a  I think amazing information  I know that in,  in the text, we're going to be sharing your information as well, Megan, you were kind enough to offer that, so if anyone wanted to reach out to you those that are interested can always reach out to us as well, wanting to know more, or maybe we don't even know how to start it up, right?

How do you even begin something like this? But,  yeah, anything else to add in as we finalize this? wonderful podcast. I think there's a part two coming, probably.  

Like I said, I'm, I'm happy to be an open book. So yeah, if anyone wants to reach out on, on the socials. Because they are a great way to connect.

Or, you know, email me, whichever. I'm happy, absolutely happy to answer questions. Or if someone's been listening to this and is like, I have an idea for how you can make this better, hit me up. I'm always open to collaborations and new ideas and moving forward, because that's the only way we grow, is by working together, so. 

Absolutely.  I love that for, I think, our ending here. What do you think, Terrine? I think that's great. 

We'll put all the contact information in the description and  thank you so much for joining us today, Megan. 

Oh, this is so much fun. Thank you so much. Thank you.

We'll keep in touch.

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