50. How to get 'spa voice'

The beauty industry is about so much more than a pretty face - the VOICE is so important to set the right tone. In this episode I chat to industry expert Tamara Reid about how therapists should speak and the challenges they face.

Check out Beaute Industrie HERE.

Transcript

Sally: Hello, my name's Sally and I'm going to be looking after you today. Sorry, I won't be giving you a massage or a facial or any kind of beauty treatment, but I will be speaking to a top industry expert about how to get that gorgeous SPA VOICE.

I'm Sally Prosser. You're listening to That Voice Podcast, no matter who you are or what you do, your voice matters. So unless you've sworn a lifetime vow of silence, this is the podcast for you.

If you'd like to speak with confidence and make your clients feel at ease, if you'd like to speak with clarity and always be understood. And if you'd like to speak with charisma and hit the right tone at the right time, then join My Six Week Voice Makeover. If you've done the makeover course, or can't wait until my next intake, then join my Members Only - it's brand new and I am loving it. You get monthly masterclasses, live hot seat coaching, a little welcome pack from me posted to your house and there's a bunch of people waiting in there to welcome you. Details are on my website and I will link to both the makeover course and Members Only in the show notes.

Now, if you're listening to That Voice Podcast for the first time, wow, what an episode to tune into we're up to number 50. If you've been around from the start, I appreciate your support so, so much. Stick around to the end because to celebrate episode 50, the half century, I have something very special I'd love to offer you. So stick around to the end.

But first let's chat to Tamara Reid. Tamara is the founder of Beaute Industrie, which is a place beauty professionals can learn and connect. If you're in the beauty industry, you have to check out beauteindustrie.com. I'll link to it in the show notes, but first stay with me because you're about to hear all about how beauty therapists can enhance the experience for their clients through their voice.

Tamara Reid, welcome to That Voice Podcast. Could you do your job if you lost your voice?

Tamara: Ah, Sally, thank you so much for having me today. Look, we could do an element of our job as a beauty dermal massage spa therapist, which would be the physical aspect of the treatment. However, it would be very, very difficult to explain to clients what you're going to do to them, how to hop on and off the bed and how to maintain their treatment. So I would say maybe 20% is a yes, however, a good 80% would be a no.

Sally: Your beautiful cat has just visited us in the background.

Tamara: Yes, she is notorious for a podcast and a video call.

Sally: Oh, isn't she gorgeous? So take me through in the beauty industry, how important is it to communicate to people who walk in?

Tamara: Oh it is the most important thing. A lot of people still yet haven't had a treatment and that could be a facial or a massage or nails or a dermal treatment. And so a lot of the time for clients, it is quite daunting. And so when they are walking into a space, a therapist really has to be quite emotionally intelligent and have a beautiful voice, which evokes a sense of calm, a sense of relaxation and also a sense of knowledge and experience. And so it is really important because within the first seven seconds, as we know, the first impression is made. And so this first seven seconds doesn't matter what you say. It matters how you say it. And so that's your tone of voice. So, you know, if a client were waiting in a lounge area, for example, or in a waiting area, and it was you perhaps Sally you're in for a treatment. And I was to say, Sally, my name's Tamara, I'm going to be your therapist today. Let's go on through to the treatment room. You already know instinctively whether that treatment is going to be good or not just based on that first interaction. So most important.

Sally: Yeah. It's so important, isn't it? Because it can be such a new, anxiety inducing experience. So for me, I get lots of spray tans. I'm so comfortable just getting my gear off. Like I don't even care if she just stays there. I'm very, very open. But I do remember like when it was the first time that I went for a facial and you are a bit anxious, it's supposed to be this relaxing experience, but you're thinking, okay, are they going to touch? Where are they going to touch and what are they going to do? And, and I remember once I had a trainee in the room and that happens sometimes I was happy for that because I'm all for people have to learn. And it was so interesting that you talk about this calm voice, because I could hear a little bit of anxiety in her voice because she was brand new to the experience. If I was extra anxious and then she was anxious as well, it would've just made the whole treatment. Anything but relaxing.

Tamara: Yeah, that's exactly right. And especially when you go into the more clinical or dermal realm and you're doing things like skin needling or skin peels or laser, for example, you do want somebody who, even if it is their first day or if they are training that they are sounding confident and that they feel like they have a lot of knowledge behind them and a lot of experience, even though it is their first day and they may be nervous because as a client, it's foreign language to go in and have a treatment and to have somebody who you don't know, touch your face or touch your body. So the sense of trust within a beauty therapist or a dermal therapist, voice can really make or break a treatment just as you're explaining there.

Sally: Absolutely. In the beauty therapy training . Is this covered? Do they cover what to say and how to say it?

Tamara: No, unfortunately not. And you know, only when you've just asked me that there I've thought, why not? Because it's such a big element, I guess a lot of the time if you are training and generally a therapist will train for two years a lot of that is on treatment, but a lot of it is on cosmetic chemistry and biology and physiology, for example. But when you're training to perform a treatment, you generally imitate what your trainer is saying or how your trainer is saying it. So for example, if you were to start a massage and you were to put your hands on the client's heart chakra and you were to say, Sally, I just get you to take three deep breaths to start the treatment today in through your nose and out through your mouth. You do listen to how the trainer, how the educator is saying that. And so you do try and imitate them, but it's probably not spoken enough about during the training as it should be. And so some therapists, it's a very, very difficult life to be a therapist because you're constantly on your feet. You're checking one client in checking another client out. You're trying to put all of your potions and lotions and cream on the tray and flip the treatment room. So in the space of 15 minutes, you are just running around like a mad woman. And so when you finally get into that treatment and you ask your client to take those three deep breaths, you can imagine if you are really busy running around, and then you invoke that sense of busy and running around onto your client while asking them to take three deep breaths, it doesn't quite align. So actually I wish there was more focus and emphasis on training.

Sally: Yeah. So Tamara, what would you do to get into that state of being relaxed when you are running around? I think it's what we forget when we go for a beauty treatment, especially if it's a nice relaxation massage or something we're often on holidays we're in the relaxation mode, but you're at work. Yeah. So how do you switch from that? Okay. I've just turned the room around to new client, sound relaxed.

Tamara: It's a great question. And a lot of the time therapists have to train themselves because we are very empathetic people as well. And so if you are busy, you hold that with you and then you invoke that into your client. So it's always important and I've always you know, taught therapists this myself before you open that door and ask the client, are you ready? Or, may I enter the room? You actually have to centre yourself and you have to be present. So you have to forget about Saturday night, forget about boyfriend, forget about what you're going to eat for lunch. And you need to centre yourself ready for that client and ask yourself, how can I give this client my all and my 100%, because at the end of the day, when you are having a treatment, you are swapping time for money. And so it is absolutely imperative that you are connecting with your client and that is your brain and that is your presence and your energy. So connecting before and after the treatment is really important. Otherwise you can start to bring in your life and your own feelings into the treatment room. And the client has enough of that, which they want to get out and relax as well.

Sally: I love that. And that would be applicable for so many different industries wouldn't it? I suppose while you're getting the client to take the nice deep breaths, you could also be taking the nice deep breaths alongside.

Tamara: Exactly. And a lot of the time you do, I mean, I've, I've taught many therapists amongst my time when the client is breathing, you breathe with them. When you're asking the client to be still, you be still with them at the same time. So very, very important.

Sally: Yeah. And you were talking earlier about the voice of trust and just for people listening, who might wonder what the voice of trust is. So a voice of trust is a voice that has a lot of air that flows through it. So when you're relaxed and you haven't got tension around your throat and you can breathe deep belly breaths and then as you're speaking, you imagine that the air is flowing out all in one, go, that's the voice of trust. So the opposite to that would be very restricted and jerky. And how are you today and how are you feeling? That's like the voice of, I don't think they really know what's going on. So another question I had. How do you read a person in terms of how much communication they want? So for example, in a facial, I quite like my therapist telling me what's going on, like now I'm doing this. Now I'm doing that now I'm putting on the lovely cooling mask or whatever it is. But some people would just say, 'I don't really care. I just want to be able to switch off for the whole hour and not have you talked to me at all.' So how do you gauge what the right level of speaking is? I guess it would be similar for hairdressers, right?

Tamara: Yeah. That's exactly right. And look just to be 100% sure what your client is after. I would always advise that people actually have this question on their consultation forms. So that's the form that a client comes in generally 10 to 15 minutes prior to their treatment so that we can gather things like past treatment history, client concerns, medical concerns, et cetera, which are going to validate the treatment today. And so on some consultation forms, it will point blank ask you how much talking would you like in today's treatment? And the client can generally tick low, medium or high. So for example, if you've ticked low, well, then you might explain how the treatment is going to be performed today, how to get onto the bed. And then you might recap the treatment versus a high level would be how you're going to get on the bed. What's going to be performed today. The individual steps, as you're explaining, this is the insert cleanser. This is the insert mask. And then afterwards would give you quite a prescriptive base. I would say if you're a client and generally clients say, I don't know how much talking I want, you know, what if I select a lot and then I actually want to go back to low. If you have a relaxation treatment, I would say generally selecting low to moderate because you don't want somebody talking to you or at you the whole time versus if you did have a concern. So for example, you were going into a treatment concerned with acne scarring or concerned with aging, and you really wanted a solution. Then you would probably want to know all of the things around that concern and then also how that concern is going to be treated and the followup. And that would be a high level of talking.

Sally: Wow. What a great idea to have it on the form. You know what, I've been for a fair few treatments my time and I don't think I've ever seen that on the form.

Tamara: Oh, interesting. Yes. Well, there you go. If we've got any therapists out there, pop it on the form. Otherwise it can simply be asked during the consultation as well.

Sally: Yeah. I love that. And have any beauty therapists. I know you work with a lot. Has anyone come to you with concerns about their voice?

Tamara: Oh, many times, many times, and even as a client, because I do mystery shop different spaces every single month. Sometimes as a client, you can actually hear another therapist in another room while you're trying to enjoy your treatment. And in the spa world. We say, that's not having a 'spa voice' because the spa voice is it's quite low. It is quite slow paced. And so when you can hear chitter chatting chitter chatting and laughing, while you know that having a gorgeous treatment, it still does impact your treatment. So both as a professional and as a client as well, you do kind of think about that element of the treatment. And sometimes you do have to guide people into understanding their voice and understanding when they're in different spaces. And that's the thing as well, the beauty industry has places like spa or sell on or dermal or clinical. And so at any time throughout your career, you can cross over into all of these different businesses and they all have a very different sounding voice. So for example, if you were in a salon, you might have music playing, it might be more open plan so you can see other treatments being performed. Then your voice might be a little bit more upbeat or friendly or talkative. Versus if you're in a dermal clinic, you're working with dermatologists and doctors, well, then you need to be quite formal, quite practical and very knowledgeable. So your voice almost does shift even depending on the different segments in the beauty industry, which is quite interesting.

Sally: So interesting and spa voice. I love it. And it's not just the therapists who need to have the spa voice, but also it's other people, you know, so I remember once having lovely relaxation massage, and I could hear other people who'd come to the spa. They were the ones that were laughing and carrying on. And I remember thinking it might be worthwhile at the start for the therapist to say, look, we're going into the treatment room now there's other people who might be having treatments. I don't know, just keep your voice down.

Tamara: Yeah, that's exactly right. And often for this very reason in a sparse setting, you will have a lounge area that is quite separate to where the treatment area is. And you might even have a sound reducing or a noise reducing door that separates the two, but sometimes we don't have the affordability or luxury of space. Therefore that reception client lounge area does start to permeate the rest of the treatment rooms.

Sally: Yeah. So interesting. Is there anything else you wanted to add?

Tamara: I guess, you know, you don't really find your voice until you are a little bit experienced. So until you have had a treatment yourself and heard another therapist or a client in the hallway or in the lounge, or until you've heard a receptionist laughing with a client, you know, I think you have to A) find your voice, but also hear other people's voices and see how they sound and go, okay. Now, how am I consciously thinking about my own sound? So, you know, not only do you have to understand the education of the treatment, how to perform the treatment practically how to communicate with your client, but then how is all that enveloped in how and what you say, which is quite difficult sometimes.

Sally: Wow. There's a, there's a lot to it. So Tamara, how can people work with you or get to know you?

Tamara: Yeah, so I and the founding director of Beaute Industrie, and so we are a support community for the professional beauty industry. So we flood all of the pages on social media. So if you search either my name or beauty industry would definitely be able to find us. But generally the easiest way is through our online subscription program, Beautecademy which I call the Netflix for the beauty industry. So no matter where you are across the world, you can jump onto any different device and log in and watch our interactive videos over there.

Sally: Wonderful. Thank you so much for coming on That Voice Podcast.

Tamara: Thank you so much for having me.

Sally: Oh, isn't Tamara gorgeous.

Now I promised something special to celebrate my 50th episode to say thank you. So I mentioned earlier, my Members Only my MO is up and buzzing, and I would love to welcome you with an extra bonus. So if you sign up to the yearly subscription, I would love to offer you a free 30 minute. One-On-One with me offering one-on-one's as a bonus. Am I crazy? Maybe. So the only other catch is that you need share my podcast on at least of your social platforms and tag me. So Instagram post Instagram story, or LinkedIn, even a TikTok, head to my website, or use the link in the show notes. So step one, sign up for the year to my MO's, two, promote the podcast on social media and tag me and three Wallah I will be in touch for 30 minutes one-on-one you and me, baby. Can't wait!

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