Writing Made Easy: Tips for Beauty Pros 

[00:00:00] Darine: Just be more yourself, being genuine that is gonna have a bigger impact than being witty.  

[00:00:06] Darine: Welcome to this week's episode of Beauty Babble. Today we are sharing four tips to help you write better on your online platforms. And this came to us because I've heard a lot of times beauty professionals and estheticians like, yeah, but I can't write or I'm not a writer. So you don't have to be, is the good news. 

[00:00:28] Darine: Let's kick off with that.  

[00:00:30] Darine: I love that. There's still hope for me yet. Yeah, so I thought I'm, I'm going to share four tips on how to help you. The first one is something I actually heard at a seminar I was at. I was at this like social media conference and there was one speaker and I can't even remember, I can't remember anything else about what she said except for this one thing and I'm like, Oh, that's such a good way to put it. 

[00:00:56] Darine: So this wisdom did not come from me, but it is [00:01:00] write like you talk. And I think that that is really, really good advice for somebody who isn't a writer, because a lot of times. If you have labelled yourself not a writer and you sit down, you start trying to put together something that sounds like writing to you. 

[00:01:18] Darine: But when you're writing for social media, if you're writing for a post for your clients or whatever, you want it to sound like you. It's like an extension of who you are, right?  

[00:01:30] Suzanne: Well, I think you always say that on social media, it's how to tell them who you are through social media, right?  

[00:01:38] Darine: And that might not always be like you're not going to write exactly what you said and then just post that. We're going to refine it. But that's the first, that's how you get started. Like, imagine a client, pick your favourite client or whatever. Imagine one of your clients and what would you say to them and just. 

[00:01:56] Darine: Write it down. I use [00:02:00] my phone's like voice thing. What's it called? Voice memo? Yeah. If I'm in the car and I have a great idea, I like turn on my voice memo and I just talk to it so that I don't forget. But you could do, you could record yourself if that's more comfortable for you. And then there's tools that you can transcribe or just record yourself and then type it out, whatever works for you,  

[00:02:24] Suzanne: right, sometimes we're overthinking that and we now need to become our English profs level.  

[00:02:32] Darine: Yeah. And I mean, the good thing is like, just keep it simple. And my number two is be clear and concise, but. I'm going to add simple, simplify. It does not have to be poetic in any way, shape, or form. Just get to the point in as little words as possible. 

[00:02:55] Suzanne: And I think too, like, what comes to mind with that is that our fear [00:03:00] of judgment on how it comes out. Do you have someone else that you could maybe show it or talk to to have their opinion if you're really unsure if you're, you know, If you feel like, oh, I'm just doing it and I'm going to wing it and see what happens with it and you're going to be okay with that, then just do it. 

[00:03:20] Suzanne: I'm kind of a winger myself. Sometimes I'll be like, Wade, I, Doreen, I need you for a sec, you know, could you just look at this one more time for me? But there's times where I'm like, this should be fine, but I'm okay with the repercussion of it too.  

[00:03:37] Darine: It is, like, that's the thing. Like, you're not writing professionally, so nobody's going to be judging you if you had a typo. 

[00:03:45] Darine: And Just be more real, like be more yourself, being genuine and that is gonna have a bigger impact than being witty. Or if that's not who you are, right? Like if you are trying to write something that's very [00:04:00] funny and witty and like you know, zip that I'm thinking like zippy, but that's not your character because you saw it and it looked cool. 

[00:04:06] Darine: I dunno.  

[00:04:07] Suzanne: Yeah, I see what you're saying. It's kinda like the ones that do, I'll flip this to where I see people what they do on social media. And I laugh and I think it's hilarious. I just, I don't know if I could do it. I just don't know if I have that acting skill to, to be, I'd rather take the meme of, you know, where Oh, what's that one that I saw of Kevin Hart and he's holding the two bottles in his hands. 

[00:04:29] Suzanne: And they're using that meme so much now of him dancing, like going to the spa with the girlfriends, you know, I would probably go more towards using somebody else's like silliness than me standing there doing something silly. Silly. I don't know. 100%. It's just who I am, right?  

[00:04:47] Darine: I think, and that reminds me of, so this content creator, she, no, she's like a co, she coaches other people to be like show up on social media or whatever, and she had posted this thing the other day that falls onto exactly [00:05:00] what you're saying, where she said, she was at a retreat. 

[00:05:02] Darine: Doing some kind of session and somebody came up to her and said, I love what you do with your stories. Like she posts a ton of stories, but I just like, I'm stressed out trying to understand like, how am I going to be able to do that? And her answer was like, you shouldn't, if that's not you. She's like, to me, easy. 

[00:05:21] Darine: That's how I express myself. If that's not you, you shouldn't do that. So that relates to everything that you write.  

[00:05:28] Suzanne: Right. Yeah.  

[00:05:29] Darine: We've talked about this in other episodes where it's like, if you have this, like, character that you present on, whether it's social media or your website or whatever, and then you're, like, completely different when somebody walks into your treatment, like, that would be so jarring, you know? 

[00:05:45] Darine: So, you just have to be yourself. Be yourself, filtered. I'm just gonna like, filter yourself to a certain degree, right? Like you, because I'm a wordy person, like I can talk and talk and talk if you haven't [00:06:00] noticed, but when, if I'm telling you to write like you talk, good god, don't do that if you talk a lot. 

[00:06:09] Suzanne: Mine would be odd and odd and  

[00:06:11] Darine: odd. Write it down and then take out all those extra words. Yeah, write it all down and read it. Anybody who does this for a profession, myself included, I never post or publish anything that I just wrote once. I've written it once, and I've re read it, and I've re written it, then I've re written it, and I, like, it's just, any professional writer would tell you, the first draft is always, just, like, you just need to get it out. 

[00:06:42] Darine: So, however you say it, write it. And then go back and read it, and take out all the extra words, so that whatever you're saying still sounds like you, but just briefer.  

[00:06:54] Suzanne: And  

[00:06:56] Darine: I think just under that, being clear and concise [00:07:00] is using the right words. So if you're talking, if you want to show a before and after, for example, and you're going to show a picture and say I don't know, let's say Skin texture? Skin texture, exactly, that. Like, anything like that. Like, if you're even inflammation, What does that even mean? 

[00:07:19] Darine: Like simplify it, simplify it. Like if your skin is this like really kind of break it down, you know, like if your skin is inflamed, if this would be,  

[00:07:32] Suzanne: yeah. So like if your, your skin texture, if your skin is feeling rough or dry or bumpy, You guys speak in their, in the different language.  

[00:07:43] Darine: Ooh, congested. 

[00:07:44] Darine: That was the one. Ah,  

[00:07:45] Suzanne: congested, yes.  

[00:07:46] Darine: That is like the big, my biggest pet peeve. It's like, what do you mean because that isn't clear? What is congested  

[00:07:53] Suzanne: skin? It's like I've had this conversation with a few people too. It's like, I, I offer detoxifying facials. [00:08:00] Yes. Well, I would be like, I wouldn't have that done then because detoxifying to me means something's wrong with my skin. 

[00:08:08] Suzanne: I need to clean it up. I hear cleaning when I hear detox, but it's not necessarily the case. So it's figuring out what else you want to do with that, right?  

[00:08:18] Darine: No, I actually love, love what you just said, because that was a conversation I had with an esthetician. I was helping her with her social media. And one of the things was. Breaking it down. Like detox facial means something to you as a professional doesn't all of it. But I would even go as far as hydrating fit. 

[00:08:40] Darine: What is a facial like really break it because you have to like be very, very clear and not assume that everybody defines things the way that you do. Why do I need a facial? Like that could be like, you need a facial if you, [00:09:00] you feel dehydrated. How does that mean? Does your skin is not, you know, like peel it back, which at first it's gonna, this sounds like a lot, but One thing I would suggest is if you really don't know, use chat GPT. 

[00:09:16] Darine: Ask chat GPT to explain facial to you like you're five years old and or whatever. And then it would just to give you an idea like right just to get those creative juices flowing. Like what, how do I explain it? If you can't really think of a way to explain it.  

[00:09:31] Darine: It takes practice too. So I think, like, first thing you're going to write like you talk. The second you're going to be clear. And concise, so you're going to remove any extra words that you've written down. 

[00:09:45] Darine: Simplify, that can be number three. Clear and concise is number two. Number three is simplify. Simplify your topic. So don't assume everybody knows what you know. The one thing we say is you don't write Don't use jargon, which is your [00:10:00] professional jargon. 

[00:10:00] Darine: Like, you know, THC or AHA, that means something to you and me. It does not mean something. It might not mean something to your clients. So just making sure that when you're using the words you're using, it means you know who you're talking to.  

[00:10:14] Suzanne: And  

[00:10:14] Darine: another one that I would put under the simplifying is use bullet points. 

[00:10:21] Darine: It's so much easier to read when you're reading bullet points. Like. If you have, and then if you're, you know, if you have dry skin or whatever, like, I don't want to read a whole sentence. I just want bullet points because most people skim when they read. They don't read the entirety of what you're writing, and you want to make it as easy for them to skim as possible. 

[00:10:41] Darine: The this again ties into your writing platform. So if you're writing a blog, Definitely use a lot of bullet points because you don't want it to be too wordy. You want more white space on your screen. And if you're writing for social media, again, bullet point is just shorter. [00:11:00] Like instead of creating a whole sentence, just get to the point and put it into a bullet point. 

[00:11:05] Suzanne: So in my head, I'm hearing you say, when you say break it down, is unlayer it. So instead of layering on and adding more, you're actually taking away to simplify it as much as you can. Can you make this paragraph into one bullet? 

[00:11:19] Darine: Yeah, you need to create space. If you present a block of text to somebody, it's harder for them to read it, you can present that exact same text, but have more space, whether it's bullets or just different paragraphs, and it would be easier to read, and you're going to get more space. Yeah. Yeah. People reading it than if it was just one block of text, so that's  

[00:11:40] Suzanne: right when you say space You're just meaning less words  

[00:11:44] Darine: Even I did say less words, but when I'm saying space I'm referring to actual space like put a look at the picture Ah,  

[00:11:53] Suzanne: gotcha. 

[00:11:53] Suzanne: Okay.  

[00:11:53] Darine: Like creating white, like, yeah. So if you have a paragraph that's five sentences, you can create two paragraphs, one with [00:12:00] three sentences and one with two sentences, and it would be easier to read. Even better, do one sentence and a bunch of bullets. That's even Creating  

[00:12:08] Suzanne: more. Yes, I get it.  

[00:12:09] Darine: So that's like Simplifying  

[00:12:11] Suzanne: it. 

[00:12:11] Darine: Yeah. We call it white space, which is just like, if you're looking at a piece of paper or a screen And you see all words, it's, it's overwhelming for your brain, and you're less likely to read it. But if you start to see whitespace, if there's more screen without words, you're more likely to read it.  

[00:12:29] Suzanne: Well, and in fairness, when you're looking at social media, again, a blog is a little different, newsletters are a little different. 

[00:12:35] Suzanne: Social media, as soon as I see all this writing, I'm gone, shoo, next. Because who is spending all this time reading everything? It's what's going to catch their eye, and I think that's why it's so important for people. If you are using social media and you're doing this on your own, or you're directing someone else to do it for you, they need to understand what you're after as well, but it's [00:13:00] understanding how do you hold them there?  

[00:13:01] Darine: Yeah, that's a good point. Like, whatever you want them to know, that's the first thing you need to say. Because they might only read your first, especially on a social media caption. Yeah. That might be the first thing you need to put. Once you get more, you know, writing a proper hook to get somebody to read more, that's just more writing time. 

[00:13:22] Darine: So just simplify it. Just say what you need to say as fast as possible to get your point across. And then number four, is avoid sounding like AI. It's actually really funny because I  

[00:13:35] Suzanne: can now spot it.  

[00:13:37] Suzanne: I can see  

[00:13:38] Suzanne: when someone's actually using AI, which is okay. 

[00:13:40] Suzanne: I'm not judging, but I'm like, Oh, I bet you that, that, because if you're using AI, you're going to start to understand when you see it, I think, too. Mm hmm.  

[00:13:49] Darine: And I think it lacks personality, and it lacks, like, I really think that, I mean, they say this in school, and my daughter always, her teacher says they have tools that they can [00:14:00] detect AI. 

[00:14:01] Darine: Actually, all those tools are not very accurate, so they're not good. So go ahead. People, you just said it, I can detect it. Maybe, but people think they can detect it. So if I'm reading your caption and I'm thinking, Oh, this sounds like AI, I'm going to have a little bit of, you know, maybe it makes somebody feel some sort of way. 

[00:14:22] Darine: That's why you got to write the way you talk and you got to simplify it and just come as you are, because you see. Start to want to, I, I think you should use AI to help you, but then make it sound like you. You know what I'm saying?  

[00:14:37] Suzanne: You take the idea and you start to word it in your way instead of copying and pasting. 

[00:14:42] Darine: Exactly.  

[00:14:43] Suzanne: Do not copy paste. Yes. It's, this is just giving you ideas so that you can, some of it, yeah. You're going to have to use the same word because that's exactly the word you want. Fine. But there's things that you can change a little bit of the wording to make it who you are. So that's, yeah. [00:15:00]  

[00:15:00] Darine: And part of that is also like, I talked about like jargon, like not using jargon, but don't use cliches. 

[00:15:06] Darine: They're overused, you know, like, Can you give an example? Comfort yourself, or Comfort yourself, treat yourself. Yeah, like, oh, you know, what I'm saying, that's, I mean, maybe it's part of how you talk, and that's different, but I don't know, what's a cliché, there's so many clichés, like a lot of people, and AI will give you a ton of clichés, and I just think, like How can you explain something? 

[00:15:30] Darine: Like maybe the cliche will explain it for you, but can you think of a different way to say it? Maybe you have some way that you're, you know, you and your group of friends speak in a specific way. Cool. Be different. Like, put that out there. So. Don't feel like you have to sound like everybody else, though, in your own personality, it really does go a long way. 

[00:15:51] Suzanne: Okay, so, was that the last one? I was going to say maybe, can you recap? Yeah, that was the last one. We did a lot of fillers in that. We didn't do bullet point at all. [00:16:00]  

[00:16:00] Darine: Well, we're not writing, we're talking. We would be editing a whole lot after this. So first off, write like you talk. So if you need to record yourself, do that. 

[00:16:12] Darine: A lot of times it's helpful to talk out loud while you're writing. If that, whatever works for you, just make it sound like it would, if you were talking to them. I like that tip. And then the second one is you want to be clear and concise. So you want to remove any extra words so that you're saying what you need to say in as little as possible. 

[00:16:34] Darine: And you want to use words that your that your clients would understand like that's who you want to target on social media, right, or your blog or more  

[00:16:48] Suzanne: people like your clients,  

[00:16:49] Darine: more people like your clients. And then that leads us into the third which is simplify right so if you're using a if you're talking [00:17:00] about a facial, break it down, explain it and use bullet points. 

[00:17:05] Darine: And then the last one is avoid sounding like AI and that is just put your personality into it, avoid cliches and jargon and just, you know, just talk normally. The last thing before we wrap up is to use some AI tools, there are AI tools out there that will help you. And there's different ways that you can use them. 

[00:17:29] Darine: You can use sorry.  

[00:17:31] Suzanne: That's okay. I know. I'm the same way. I think it's the dryness. Yeah, with AI I've been playing around a little bit with it But it helps me especially when I'm thinking or trying to create something or you know It's like finding another way. 

[00:17:47] Suzanne: So I look at almost like a How do I say this? Like an encyclopedia talking to me, and I know I'm not one, so now how do I revert that into saying something else? Right? [00:18:00] So the information is very logical or in depth, like an encyclopedia style, dictionary style if you wish. Now how do we make that into a personality way of saying something? 

[00:18:12] Darine: You can also use AI to just help you, like if you're feeling insecure about, you know, putting something out there and not having it like proofread or whatever, you can use either ChatGPT or Grammarly to just proofread your. Captions or your blog post and you know, that's a great idea for grammar, check for spelling. 

[00:18:34] Darine: I mean, you could do that within if you're using a word document kind of program, it will have that for you as well. But sometimes we're on our phone, and we're just writing a note.  

[00:18:47] Suzanne: Yes. So let's say you put something in, and you say, help me simplify this. Right, so you have, let's say, a paragraph and you're stuck. 

[00:18:58] Suzanne: To simplify, as you said, break up [00:19:00] more space. You can ask chat GPT to how to simplify this and add bullets and bang, it'll think it'll come out and give you what you need. And once you start doing that, you'll start learning too, because it's learning for you as the person doing it. That's what I found myself. 

[00:19:17] Suzanne: It's like, Oh, okay. I like that. It's like, Oh, I, What would, what would chat GPT say to this? And I try to think about it myself, right? But if you're stuck there's, and who's got time, you've allowed yourself one hour to come up with something. The brain's not working. These are why these tools are there. It's so amazing, right? 

[00:19:34] Suzanne: So I get time is time is time and it's limited, especially if you're, you know, an entrepreneur doing it all yourself and you're doing the services, you're doing the marketing and ordering and everything. These are the tools that are going to save you.  

[00:19:50] Darine: I a hundred percent agree. I think. At the end too, I would just close it off by saying, don't overthink it. 

[00:19:57] Darine: Just write what you write and put it out there. [00:20:00] I think it, it's more valuable to be yourself and genuine and not perfect than it is to stress over it or think, overthink it and then not get it done. At least you put something out there that's coming from a place of authenticity you know, just, you just gotta get it out there. 

[00:20:18] Darine: I think. Remembering, we talk about this a lot when we're, you know, talking about our, when we're doing other topics, what are the goals? What are the goals? What are your goals? Like, why are you even posting this? And just keep it simple.  

[00:20:30] Darine: If any of our listeners have a ideas of work for them that they want to share, I want to hear it so that we can spread that message of just right, making writing easier. 

[00:20:43] Suzanne: Mm hmm. Or the reversal you've been trying and you're still stuck. This is where we get these topics from is you guys. So  

[00:20:51] Darine: thank you for that.  

[00:20:52] Suzanne: Helps us very much. So  

[00:20:54] Darine: I hope so. All right. We'll be back with another episode next week.