Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Merriman.
Hi Leslie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
After two decades as a research and IT consultant, I was ready to take a pause and find what I wanted my next career chapter to be. The path of working with skin brings together so many passions of mine but I also see this work as something far beyond the superficial beauty world.
I’ve volunteered with and advocated for decades to help and resettle refugees and immigrants into the dc metro area and so much of that time doing that, nearly 3 decades of volunteering, showed me that trauma is a significant issue especially with women.
Women tend to have fewer options available to them to seek aid, whether they are native born or came here later in life.
When I work with clients, so much of what we do is to create security and space, a place for my clients to not do anything for anyone else and find peace and care.
The mental health component to the work we do is why I am so passionate about my career now and the spa is a reflection of these decades of work. The spa is a reflection of understanding research and not trends or fads, it is a reflection of proving comfort and peace and to me, that is truly beautiful.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
After investing in undergrad and graduate school along with numerous certifications, I wasn’t madly in love with the idea of going back to school for another year, full time. Transitioning from large scale management and consulting to being in a trade school was a bit of a shock. The next bumpy road was when I started working in this field.
I worked at a few spa/med spa places in the area and honestly was kinda mortified at the management and attitudes in these places.
With my professional career background as my core, I found then and still find now, that there are many people in this “beauty industry” who are really quite unethical and predatory with clients.
These encounters made me go solo and open my own business because I truly have no tolerance for incompetence and unethical behaviors in front of or behind client backs.
Having a background in management was helpful for sure but opening a business is far more than just management skills.
As a business owner, you are it. You are all roles and some you may excel in and the harder part is seeing the many ways in which you are not up for the job at hand.
For me, I really don’t enjoy social media marketing. You have to find ways and tools to make it possible to do the work and as you can, find help.
But that’s easier said than done. My first year open was painfully hard. I was trying to find my identity as a business owner, I was starting with zero clients, and I was also struggling with severe anxiety and stress due to a long term humanitarian project I was working on and the toll of that work, significantly impacted my ability to invest time and energy and passion into my new business.
But now going into year 4, I feel like so many pieces have fallen into place. Our business identity and mission is clear, that spa work is connected to my passions of humanitarian work as well. I’m growing a team and am excited to see how the next year unfolds.
But the stress is never gone, it’s a daily weight I feel but it’s one I’ve built and see grow. That makes it all feel worthwhile.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
When I was in consulting, I’d ask my team members what their other professional interests were, and I’d try to find ways to add that into their existing role. The goal being to give them a creative outlet in their work and experience doing what they love in the midst of their normal work with the result being better engagement with their work and excitement for it, plus trust. Trust that I as their manager have their back and care about developing their skills.
For example, I’d have tech writers who wanted to build training classes and make training videos so, I’d help build that into their tasks.
With this spa I own now, plus I have a non profit, one of my favorite outlets for this work is the creative outlet. That can be website design and layout, image creation, photography and then of course, writing, lots of writing.
Writing blogs, webpage content, treatment menus and client emails.
It is something that I love being able to tap into and change the pace of my work.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up was a struggle. I didn’t have the most stable home life and I struggled to find people I could rely on and trust so, I became possibly too self reliant and that’s been a challenge as a business owner – knowing when to get help. But I was definitely a nerd, loved reading and wasn’t into sports. As I got into high school, my home life was more difficult and I was not remotely engaged and barely graduated. I took time off to work and eventually found my way back to college and then grad school and beyond. But I’m an introvert and avoid parties, I love history and health science. I don’t really read fiction – I’ve always been glued to non fiction.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Skinmemoryspa.com
- Instagram: /skin.memory
- Other: https://Ourcultureisgiving.org
