IAM2265 – Founder and Educator Helps Clients Build a Successful Career in the Beauty Industrya

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Elaine Sterling: We are touching people's lives in my industry, whether it be in the salons and spa industry, the beauty industry, or whether it be the students. We are actually touching people with our hands and our hearts.

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Intro: Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

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Gresham Harkless: Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today, Aviv Lane Sterling. And Lane, excited to have you on the show.

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Elaine Sterling: I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Love to share and collaborate with great people like you.

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Gresham Harkless: Yeah, absolutely. What makes me great is I have great people like you that's on the show. So I'm super excited to dig in and hear about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Elaine so you can hear about some of those awesome things she's been working on. And Elaine, originally from South Africa, is an internationally acclaimed entrepreneur, thought leader, and award-winning esthetician. As the founder and prestigious Elaine Sterling Institute and the creator of the Elaine Sterling skincare, she has revolutionized the

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Gresham Harkless: beauty industry through her results driven approach and dedication to elevating industry standards. Elaine's entrepreneurial journey is fueled by her desire to empower others to build thriving businesses just as she has, and with global recognized, ITech and Sidesco certifications, Elaine has turned her personal experiences and challenges into a source of inspiration for many others. Her story of resilience and success has motivated countless aspiring entrepreneurs and beauty professionals, and through her business and retail concepts, Elaine Sterling Institute and Elaine Sterling Skincare, she remains a powerful voice advocating for innovation and growth within the beauty industry. And Elaine is

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Gresham Harkless: passionate about sharing practical, real-world advice on entrepreneurship, women in business, and beauty innovation. And as a thought leader, she provides invaluable insights for those looking to build successful businesses and enterprises from the ground up, inspiring others to dream big and take that action. And 1 of the things I really love when I was preparing for this is Elaine, I think I started an industry around the age of 18, but I think she had a lot of like entrepreneurial tendencies, like when she was younger. And I always say like the secret to the overnight success, it takes

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Gresham Harkless: 10 to 15 years and like hearing how she has put so much into this industry and helped out so many others is such a beautiful thing. She's also the author of the book, Beauty Beyond the Mirror. And 1 of the most powerful quotes I think that I read when I was kind of going through this is that beauty is not merely a reflection in the mirror, it extends far beyond encompassing the human experiences, the struggles and triumphs that shape us all. So Elaine, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the

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Gresham Harkless: IMCO community?

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Elaine Sterling: I am so ready.

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Gresham Harkless: Awesome, well, let's get it started. There we go. Well, let's get it started then. So I guess I touched on it a little bit, but let's rewind the clock a little bit. Here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

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Elaine Sterling: Yeah, so I think we all have a pivotal moment in our lives, right? That when you call it an aha moment or a light bulb, whatever you want to call it. And I think for entrepreneurs, sometimes it's personal. For me, it was, I got cancer when I was 35. And then I realized that how short life is, right? And we have to live not only our best life, but follow our natural incarnation and our passion and allow our dreams to become reality. So that after I got cancer and I had finished my treatments, I kind of

03:46 - 04:19

Elaine Sterling: had this now or never. And I just felt that I needed to change my life. I remember when the booms opened at the hospital and I drove out after my last radiation treatment, I just really had this compelling feeling that things had to change and that there was going to be a newness to my life. Women love to change things when we have these moments. I couldn't change my hair because I was bald. So I broke up with a boyfriend. That's another thing that usually people do. And then I went to work for a school, I

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Elaine Sterling: was working at a spa, but I went to work for a school and I wanted to learn undergraduate education. This industry makes more female entrepreneurs than any other industry. Globally, it's probably over $500 billion globally. And so I really wanted to give a pathway to men and women. I mean, I still have 90% women in my school. So men make great hairdressers, cosmetologists, barbers. But I wanted to lead a pathway. So I wanted to find out how can we become a successful, you know, six-figure, seven-figure technician, because I feel like A lot of times our industry

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Elaine Sterling: gets a bad rap, right? Beauty school dropout. I think that was, you know, from Greece, lightning, right? Greece, and it's not that way. I mean, it's, especially in the South, you're born pretty, you live pretty, You gotta be pretty in the South, you know. I always say beauty and booze, right? From the beginning of time, Cleopatra was probably the first esthetician and then booze, Jesus has been drinking it, right?

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Gresham Harkless: So, you

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Elaine Sterling: know, those 2 industries are gonna be here forever. And it's just about being a part of it. And when I also started, America was very new to spa and wellness. It was really for sort of the rich and famous, you know, it wasn't as mainstream or you give somebody a massage gift, it wasn't. Now it is incredibly mainstream and actually the influences are dictating. So that was my pivotal moment and then to go and learn undergraduate education and then to open up my institute. And I was 40 and that was also another thing. I think I

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Elaine Sterling: had the energy at 40, but I'm 56 now. So I'm not sure I would take as many risks now than I did then. Even though I think I'm about to take some more risks. But that's an entrepreneur. We always like to go where angels fear to tread.

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Gresham Harkless: I love that. Yeah, that's a very beautiful thing is like A lot of times you see something, you see a problem, and you feel like you can create that solution. And I feel like that's a lot of what you've been able to do for people that are within this beauty industry is not just understand how to do great work, but also understand the business aspects. Is that right? And how you've been able to kind of build your school and be able to kind of serve the clients you work with?

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Elaine Sterling: Absolutely. I mean, we actually have a whole course just on financial literacy because people want to do this, but they don't even know like, oh my God, I need an EIN number and I need a resale tax ID and, oh, I thought I just needed that, right? It's just sort of really things that we take for granted. I mean, I had to learn everything myself. I think, you know, I think I got my MBA in, you know, street smarts

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Gresham Harkless: or something.

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Elaine Sterling: Because, but, you know, you know, they come to me and they ask me, so where do I start? How do I build a business plan? So we actually took on a financial literacy business course for our students that they actually, it's called CUNITY, but there's many others, so that they can learn. You know, I had to learn how to speak PNL. It's horrible, I don't like looking at it because it's painful. You know, it's, but I think, I think entrepreneurs have a certain personality trait. Like I don't like to be told what to do. Yeah. And

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Elaine Sterling: then sometimes, you know, I do things that don't make me money, but make me feel good. Like writing the book. My circle of friends have gotten very, very small. I think it's also being an entrepreneur. You know, you really, my business is my husband and my lover and my child, you know, and sometimes I don't have much left for my fiance or my children, you know. But my children have been with me forever. So since they were born, so they know me.

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Gresham Harkless: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And they know a lot about the DNA, but it sounds like you have, and I'm not sure if this is part of what sets you apart and makes you unique, this ability to understand that, but also understand like how important execution and actually saying I'm gonna do something and get it done. Do you feel like that's something that sets you and the organization apart and makes it unique?

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Elaine Sterling: Absolutely. You know, it's kind of like, I'm sure you've been in meetings, right? And everybody has these great ideas and they're throwing them out and you're writing on the board and we're creating a mind map or whatever you want to call it and we've got it and then nothing happens. The world is moving so quickly and you have to evolve and adapt with that world. That's really, really important. You know, I just can't stress that enough. I've sort of, I've gone from 6 students where I taught them all myself to 500 students and different programs and

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Elaine Sterling: my skincare line. And I really wanted to make sure that my story was told as well, because I'm not gonna be on the planet forever. I feel like I'm enriching or teaching the next generation of entrepreneurs or beauty professionals And so I'm sort of that's why I wrote it all out, right? This this is my story to tell and it was it was I think it was healing and cathartic as well. And then it also enables my students, when they enroll in my school, they get a copy of the book. I have a few people that

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Elaine Sterling: have worked for me or worked for me, and it's like, they have these great ideas. And I'll say to them, so who's implementing these ideas? They sound good. I can see them. I'm with you. But they want other people to do it. You know what I mean? I'm like, who's doing this? We are touching people's lives in my industry, whether it be in the salon and spa industry, the beauty industry, or whether it be the students. We are actually touching people with our hands and our hearts.

10:09 - 10:20

Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple Book or even a habit that you have. What's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:20 - 10:57

Elaine Sterling: I believe in a healthy lifestyle, number 1. I work out, I go on walks. So you've got to have something that feeds you separate to work. I also love to be creative. So I love to cook or do something artsy, something creative. And then the other thing that's really important, so that will feed you emotionally and spiritually if you do something that's away from whether it's something spiritual, then the other thing I do is I like to go to class every year, whether I take a business class, or whether I take a hands on skills class,

10:58 - 11:35

Elaine Sterling: or go to a convention or association and take classes, that really, I suddenly get amazing ideas through other people. And then you also don't feel so alone because entrepreneurs, it's kind of lonely because you are sort of under your umbrella, right, of your business or businesses. You may have 1 business or you may have 16, but you're living and breathing that every single day. And sometimes it gets a little lonely, right? And then when I go to conventions or conferences and I talk to other business owners and I network and I go to classes I'm like

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Elaine Sterling: oh my god they have the same problems as me you know like I'll talk about a situation about an employee or what's coming down the pipeline with you know the federal guidelines and stuff and be like, oh, I had the same. So the names may change and the faces may be a little different, but as entrepreneurs, we're going through really similar stuff. So to be connected to that and feed yourself so that you're growing. You have to, you know, without a vision that people perish, right? You have to continue to grow your business and yourself.

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Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I love that you said that. What would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call a CEO nugget? So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something you shared with us or something you might've shared in your book, but it's something you would tell your favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

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Elaine Sterling: Being an entrepreneur, I guess some of the nuggets are is consistency. Stay and stay in your lane. And this is the other thing I tell people, just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. And what I mean by that is that, you know, people will come to you with great ideas or come to you with business opportunities all the time when you start becoming successful. They're like, I wanted to do this. So why don't you collaborate me in this? And it may take you away from your core values

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Elaine Sterling: or your core business, right? And so don't be afraid to say no. Sometimes, you know, marinate on that and say, is it going to take me away from, from, from my vision that I was working through? Am I going to be distracted and go down this other path that really doesn't have much to do with what I'm doing? Or is it going to add value? Is it actually aligned with what I'm doing right now? Because I've said no to quite a few things because I wanted to stay in, I call it the E-lane, isn't that cute?

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Elaine Sterling: My name's Elaine. So we always stay in the E-lane, right? So I wanna stay in the E-lane. And also I may do things that also, I wanna do things that make me happy. So I may not make as much money, but if it isn't gonna make me happy, I'm not going to do it because I got this 1 life, right? I'm trying to lead the next generation of entrepreneurs and give them a part of me so that they can be successful. And that's really our wealth, I think, not the money, right? Is the helping other people

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Elaine Sterling: be successful and watching that. I think that's really powerful.

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Gresham Harkless: Yeah, and so now I wanna ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Elaine, what does being a CEO mean to

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Elaine Sterling: you? I don't really call myself a CEO, but I call myself a visionary. And that's what it means to me is I'm always looking at the vision. I'm a future planner. So I'm planning those 3 years down the road, those 5 years down the road, what does that look like? And so when I have that, I may have to, the road may curve a little bit, you know, because that's why I update the three-year plan every year. But that's, it's being a visionary. You have to be a visionary. But then what is the plan, the action

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Elaine Sterling: plan to bring that vision to fruition? What do you need? Do you need people? Do you need money? Do you need strategic alliances? You can't just have the plan. What is the plan for the plan? So I would say a visionary is what means to be a CEO.

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Gresham Harkless: I absolutely love that definition. Of course, I love and appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get over you and your team, find out about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, get a copy of your book to find out about all the awesome things you've been sharing.

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Elaine Sterling: I'm Elaine Sterling and yes it is actually my name and I am a real person. A lot of people ask me that and my school is in Atlanta, Georgia, City in the Trees or City in the Forest. It's in the heart of Buckhead and we have 5 programs. We have Esthetician, Massage, Nail Care, Barbering and Cosmetology. And then I have my Elaine Stirling Skincare. So elanestirling.com is where you find my school. And then elanestirlingskincare.com is my skincare line. And then I have a podcast too I just started, Esthetician Unlocked. And of course I'm on all the

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Elaine Sterling: social media, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, I have Elaine stilling on YouTube, tons of videos.

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Gresham Harkless: Elaine truly appreciate those last points. Of course we're gonna have links and information to show notes as well too so that everybody can connect. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of

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Elaine Sterling: the day. Thank you so much. I appreciate you too.

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Intro: Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at ceohacks.co. This has been the I Am CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.