Welcome to the “Lovin’ the Skin I’m In”! I’ve started this website to share my story and also the many stories of the fabulous people I’ve met over the journey I’ve taken over the past 12 months.
2018 was quite a transformative year for me. It all started at the end of 2017 when I was unexpectedly made redundant from my job. I started applying for other jobs but there was one thing noticeably missing from my applications – PASSION!
So I decided to take six months off work – the first time ever outside of parental leave – to work out what I was going to do with my life – to find PASSION and PURPOSE. This was no mean feat. Having financial commitments, three children, all still at school and a lifestyle (albeit quite simple) that needed to be maintained. Finding myself, my passion and purpose was not an easy crossing. When you’ve spent the last 20+ years of your life developing yourself in a profession and find yourself at a cross roads it presents a lot of challenges. There were good times and bad times. As my brother aptly put it one day, not working is good, but not working is not good, especially when you’re used to being a busy person with a full life!
I thought about a gym, but it is a highly competitive industry, customer churn is high as is cost of set up. Similarly I thought about personal training but the outcome was the same as opening a gym and the times other people want to be trained are the times I need to be home for my children. I thought about becoming a nutritionist but this would take three years full time and six years part time so all of these weren’t viable options. The common thread amongst all of these however was people – I love people – a clear passion. So that’s the connecting factor between what I did in corporate life and what I do now and in part how I connected with Skindevour. A former colleague and now very good friend listed my strengths as building relationships, securing trust and keeping confidences. I was able to bring out the best in people and help them be better. At Skindevour it’s the same – I want to be able to help people be the best version of themselves.
After much soul searching I landed on opening a Skin Clinic – Skindevour! Many of you ask, “how did you get from a corporate career in Human Resources to a small business owner running a skin clinic?”
One thing that helped me a long the way was a fabulous book called Career Leap, written by my very dear friend, Michelle Gibbings. The publishing of her book was timely and helped me set some criteria for myself – first and foremost I needed to be passionate about what I did.
When you’ve spent the last 20+ years of your life developing yourself in a profession and find yourself at a cross roads it presents a lot of challenges.
I’ve learned very well that when you work full time, you must love what you do. Other criteria I established was that I wanted genuine flexibility, which to me was to be able to work when I wanted and where I wanted without any restraints and I didn’t want to work far from my home. Given my financial situation I also needed to earn comparatively the same amount of money in a relatively short period of time and finally, I wanted to have more control over my destination. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a great corporate career and have made much money out of a few redundancies over my time but when you’re halfway through your life, I felt being in control of my own destiny was important.
So I set about finding my passion. For me a franchise seemed to be a great idea as it would help me learn how to run a business and de-risked the commitment for me. Having three children, it is hard to have a personal interest but what I do know about myself is that health, fitness and exercise has kept me going over the years – when I feel physically well, I feel mentally well. So this was my starting point.
I thought about a gym, but it is a highly competitive industry, customer churn is high as is cost of set up. Similarly I thought about personal training but the outcome was the same as opening a gym and the times other people want to be trained are the times I need to be home for my children. I thought about becoming a nutritionist but this would take three years full time and six years part time and that’s when I came across Skindevour.
My passion for Skindevour is palpable – it’s like I’ve discovered a secret I don’t want to keep but instead share the benefits and have my clients feel the same joy it brings me. Skin is the largest organ in the body and yet we rarely think about looking after it aside from applying the essential SPF. There are many things you can do to look after your skin and I felt I’d been living under a rock. I’ve also learned that as women we are our own worst enemies and what you see as a flaw in your face or body, no one else can see. And this is how “Lovin’ the Skin I’m In” began. The way you feel about the way you look is directly related to mental health and I hope that you can take inspiration from the stories shared on this site and love the skin your in!
