Recorded: Welcome to The ReWork with Allison Tyler Jones, a podcast dedicated to inspiring portrait photographers to uniquely brand, profitably price and confidently sell their best work. Allison has been doing just that for the last 15 years and she’s proven that it’s possible to create unforgettable art and run a portrait business that supports your family and your dreams. All it takes is a little rework. Episodes will include interviews with experts from in and outside of the photo industry, many workshops and behind the scenes secrets that Allison uses in her portrait studio every single day. She will challenge your thinking and inspire your confidence to create a profitable, sustainable portrait business you love through continually refining and reworking your business. Let’s do The ReWork.

Allison Tyler Jones: Hi, friends and welcome back to The ReWork. You know that I love to have guests from other industries because when I talk to somebody that owns a business in a different industry, I can always find parallels to our own and how I can improve my process and make things better. Today’s guest is Rechelle Trejo. She is the owner of Auri Aesthetics, she’s a registered nurse and she trains estheticians from all over the country. She’s really, really good at what she does, helping women to be their most beautiful, but natural selves. And she does that by being the expert, by not actually letting her clients come in and say, “This is what I want. This is what I do.” And she does that by guiding her client through her consultation process in order for them to get the most beautiful results, in ways that maybe they didn’t even imagine. Not unlike being a portrait photographer in many ways. I think you’ll find this conversation fascinating, interesting, and inspiring. Let’s do it.

Allison Tyler Jones: Welcome Rechelle Trejo to The ReWork podcast. I’m so glad that you’re here.

Rechelle Trejo: Thank you. So very excited and honored to be here.

Allison Tyler Jones: Well, I know you are one busy woman because there are a lot of faces out there that are needing to be Botoxed and beautified. I’d love to have you just tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, what led you to where you’re at now? Tell us a little bit about your business, that sort of thing.

Rechelle Trejo: What led me to aesthetics? That’s actually probably a really long and unique story so we’ll truncate it down to a very small. But initially when I finished schooling, I didn’t go into work. It was important for me to want to be home and to be home with my babies when I had my children young. But there’s always been something about me that I love to create beauty. I love to create things of value. It didn’t really matter what it was that I was doing, but I’ve always felt that. So it could be gardening and I would see a little patch of earth where I’m like, “Okay, wait if I put these bushes here and this tree here, and I do this,” and thought I would just create beauty. If it was food, it wasn’t just making a meal. It was, “Okay, how can I make this look amazing? How can I really create something amazing in this dish?”

Allison Tyler Jones: I love that.

Rechelle Trejo: It was always just something that feeds me. Whatever it is that I’m doing, I want to create something that either I or others or that see the value and the beauty in it. When I started working, I decided it was time to go back to work, my babies were growing up, it was like, “Okay, well, what do I want to do with my degree now? What do I want to do with this?” I fell into aesthetics to be honest with you and I started looking at it and was more mind blown than anything else that this was actually medicine, that this was something that I could do. I could create beauty and I could create value, create business. And so it was just another source of that energy that feeds me and really motivates me.

Allison Tyler Jones: It’s interesting because you were drawn to beauty, creating beauty and then you had a nursing degree and how do you create beauty from nursing?

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah, exactly. It ended up fitting out really well and like I said, when I went to the initial course, I was more dumbfounded. I was like, “Wait, whoa, wait, this is what nursing is? I can do this?” And so it was, it was a lot of fun and I started doing it and just loved it. So I have been an aesthetic provider for 10 years now. I’ve been practicing for 10 years. The first five years was very slow. I still had young children at home and honestly didn’t advertise much, I didn’t do a whole lot with it. And then I started training other girls and that propelled me forward. Having other people ask the why, why do you do it this way? Trying to get into my brain forced me to become a better injector and a better trainer and I grew so much from those experiences. And so then I really started growing quickly, patients started coming in, referrals started coming in. Then the last five years has really kind of exploded. It’s been fun to watch. So initially I was-

Allison Tyler Jones: Sorry, tell me the name of your business.

Rechelle Trejo: Auri Aesthetics.

Allison Tyler Jones: A-U-R-I, which means?

Rechelle Trejo: Yes, gold. In medicine, most the medical terminology is Latin. It’s all based in Latin terminology and so I wanted to keep the medical roots because you have to have a medical license to do this, but still have that aesthetic flare. So gold in Latin means Auri, so that’s where it comes from.

Allison Tyler Jones: I love that. Well, and the thing that I noticed watching you as you were doing it on the side, so to speak, before you opened your practice that you have right now that you’re sitting in, is that I thought you were really so smart the way you did your social media, because it wasn’t just a pretty face. It wasn’t how to look like Kim Kardashian or whatever. It was this very medical, you always came from a medical angle and then you showed how it could be natural. You showed it before and after and you showed how it could be natural. And so I always felt when I was looking at those posts that I was getting a little bit of an education. It wasn’t just that you were training other people to do it, but you were actually training your clients to see [crosstalk 00:06:13] really [crosstalk 00:06:14].

Allison Tyler Jones: Not only see what the possibilities are, but to see that this does require expertise and that while there probably are a lot of people doing it, there are probably a lot of people that should not be doing it.

Rechelle Trejo: There’s a lot of truth to that as well.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yes. So I always felt like, wow, she really knows what she’s doing and she’s really careful. And then your language that you use, I’m sure it was completely intentional because I know you and I know you’re super smart, but everything was natural and glowing and fresh and beautiful and it was never like, “She’s so hot,” or, “She’s so-”

Rechelle Trejo: She’s [inaudible 00:06:51].

Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah, yeah.

Rechelle Trejo: I just [inaudible 00:06:54] here.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yes.

Rechelle Trejo: No. So that’s actually the logo we have too is, Stay Gold, and the meaning of that is stay natural. It’s actually originates from a poem. I can’t even remember who it is right now, but it talks about how nothing gold can stay. And so the basis of it is stay who you are. We all have these natural nuances, these differences and I think they’re so important to maintain that. But then to bring that refresh, that happy, that joyful, youthful energy back where you can, but still respecting the individual. I don’t want everybody looking like a Kardashian. I don’t want to look like a Kardashian. I don’t want my patients to all look like a Kardashian or anybody else for that matter. You are you, let’s keep you looking like you just a happier, refreshed version of you.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. I love that. I think that’s so great. So you basically do in real life, what we do in Photoshop.

Rechelle Trejo: Do you know what’s really funny is actually when I think about how to inject, I’m looking at lights and shadows, which is a lot of … Right, photography is really how are the lights and shadows affecting the face and so that’s what I’m looking at. I’m looking at the face and I’m like, okay, I know what the ideal is. Right? We have these golden ratios and these fives and all these different things and it’s like, okay, I can look at that. But then I’m looking at your individual face and saying, “Okay. On you, where’s the lights and shadows hitting and where should they be hitting?” And then I’m trying to create that. So when you walk around, you’re just a photoshop person looking good, every angle.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. That’s so awesome. So I think it’s interesting that we both do for a living kind of a similar thing, but in different ways. So as a portrait photographer, I want to show people at their best. I want them to see themselves at their best and see them loving their family, but I also want them to be flattered and be beautiful. And so we of course do that with lighting, we do that with posing and then a little bit of Photoshop or a lot, depending on the situation. But it’s a luxury, nobody needs what we do. Everybody’s got a phone on their camera. Not everybody can do what you do, but nobody actually needs Botox and nobody actually needs fillers or to have their lips plumed. Right? So nothing that we do is required. So when you came into the business and you put your name on that door and you went into office space and you have employees, so it’s all real, real now. It’s no longer side hustle. It’s like, you got to pay some bills and you got to pay some employees.

Rechelle Trejo: It’s a lot more investment. Yeah. When you have the risk of that, there’s a lot more into it.

Allison Tyler Jones: When you started saying numbers into the real world in front of real clients, how did that go? Was it hard for you?

Rechelle Trejo: Saying numbers, what do you mean by that? The cost of the product?

Allison Tyler Jones: Meaning when somebody saying, “How much is this going to cost me for you to make my lips plum or to make me not have frownie face between my eyebrows?”

Rechelle Trejo: No, because we all understand the value of it. It is universal that you want to feel good and to look good. It doesn’t mean that you’re trying to look like somebody else, but you want to feel good and look good about yourself and not just when you’re photoshopped.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right.

Rechelle Trejo:
Ideally, you look that way all the time. Right? And so what price wouldn’t you pay for that really? What price would you not pay to say I get up in the morning and I look in the mirror and it’s not like, “Oh my gosh.” It’s I look in the mirror and say, “Dang, I look good.” There’s [crosstalk 00:10:05]

Allison Tyler Jones: What’s the value of that? Yeah.

Rechelle Trejo: Absolutely. So no, it wasn’t hard. And I think at least in my industry, there’s industry standards of what typically prices are. And so it’s a good way to kind of see where you’re going to be, but I’m not the cheapest. I don’t want the people who are going and trying to find Groupons and looking for the cheapest. I want somebody who’s going to look for the best. I want the patients who understand the value of somebody who is really going to listen and to consider what it is that they’re being told. And then also use the medical judgment and aesthetic training that I’ve had to tell them what’s going to be best. But no, it wasn’t actually hard to say, “Okay, this is what it is.”

Allison Tyler Jones: I love that. So how are you finding your clients? Like when you started, obviously you probably were friends and family and kind of your network, but what are you doing for marketing or how are you building your business now?

Rechelle Trejo: Now? Well, I’ll be honest with you. The best are referrals. Referrals are 100% the best, because same with you, right? When you have somebody who’s like, “Allison’s good. Just go and you will 100% love it.” They already trust you. They’re already invested in you. Those are the patients who come in and they say, “Okay, so you treat my friend’s face. She looks absolutely amazing. What do I need?” Instead of coming in and telling me what they think they need, which most of the time isn’t right. And so those are by far the best marketing tools I have is just word mouth from other people. I’ve recently hired two other injectors, a nurse practitioner and another nurse. And it’s hard to start building up a clientele for new people. And so we have done Google ads, new website, different things like that, just to try to build-

Allison Tyler Jones: Just get some people in. Yeah.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah. But it’s been fun to see how quickly they’re growing. I mean, it took me years to get as busy as they already are in months.

Allison Tyler Jones: That’s awesome.

Rechelle Trejo: And so it’s been fun to see that.

Allison Tyler Jones: Well, I’m sure that part of that is the critical mass of what you already have going on. You have people that can’t get into you and are willing to go to somebody else and all that.

Rechelle Trejo: Because they know I have trained them.

Allison Tyler Jones: Exactly.

Rechelle Trejo: They know that they’re going be the same level of care with me, much the same as you with your other photographers. Right? I know that if I go and somebody else takes the picture, it’s still going to be absolutely amazing. And so the same thing holds true is having people who are skilled, who you’ve trained to have that good aesthetic eye, that good photography eye, that can take over where I can’t do it all.

Allison Tyler Jones: I love that. So as your client, so we are each other’s clients, which is really fun.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah.

Allison Tyler Jones: Fun fact is that 20 some years ago, I actually photographed your engagement pictures in my living room of my house.

Rechelle Trejo: Almost 21 years.

Allison Tyler Jones: Almost 21 years. I know. It’s so crazy. And you don’t actually look any different. You look amazing. But when I came to you and I haven’t done … I’m like super nervous about anything, but when I came to have Botox and have you do something for me-

Rechelle Trejo: I think you wanted Xanax. You were like asking for like drugs, not-

Allison Tyler Jones: Well, because I’m such a wuss. I mean like pain, like needles, I can’t handle it. But my experience and the reason why I wanted to have you on the podcast, because you’re thinking what is an esthetician having to do with a portrait photographer podcast? But how it directly relates is that the booking was seamless. It was very easy to book with you. I could tell that you were busy, so you weren’t just available like, oh tomorrow here’s five times. It was like in the third week of November. And then you came in your place looked great. It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful to look at. And then you sat down with me, you did a consultation and you just went through my face and showed me, you had a flip chart and kind of educated me on here’s how your face works. This is what happens as you age and this is typically what we do. This is how it’s done. And here’s the things that some other people do that I really don’t like to do because this looks fake. You had a way, I knew you didn’t design those materials. Those were obviously materials that had been given to you.

Rechelle Trejo: No.

Allison Tyler Jones: But you had your own expertise and your own point of view. And I’d seen on your Instagram, what you’d done for other people. So there’s your referral piece. And then you come in and you have this whole education of, “Hey, this is what we’re going to do. And this is how we’re going to do it.” Then there was the torture of actually having it done. But that is my whole other story. Not unlike being photographed, because being photographed can be very painful as well. Not as painful as having-

Rechelle Trejo: Not when you have Allison do it though, then it’s just a fun party.

Allison Tyler Jones: I don’t know, but anyway. I felt like even though it was something I was very, very nervous about, I was very scared about, that you took all the fear away. The proof was in the pudding. I could see, I knew that it was going to be great. And then you checked up on me and said, “Okay, send me a picture. Let me see how it’s going. Here’s what to expect. The Botox is not going to kick in right away.” You just walked me through it. And I felt totally handheld. And then you told me all the things to watch for, if there was going to be a bad reaction and then what you would do in case there was a bad reaction. And so I just felt like I can’t lose. Because all the things you think are going to happen like, well, what if this, what if that? You brought that up before I ever had to. I didn’t have to say, “Well, what if I don’t like this? And can we reverse it,” and whatever. And you just answered all those questions before I could even ask them, which is amazing. And I think that’s directly relatable to portrait photography and how we work is that rather than waiting for the client to ask the question, you get out ahead of it.

Rechelle Trejo: It saves the problems, right? If you can explain it and you can educate, education is so huge. And if you can do that ahead of time, then they go away and they feel confident. They feel confident in you. They feel confident in themselves that they are like, “Okay, I’m good.” If you don’t do that, you will be getting calls about every single little thing afterwards. And so that’s one of the lessons I’ve learned over time is being able to be honest upfront on what could happen and possibilities saves you in the end. It saves you a lot of time and effort and energy in the end.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right. And obviously with your process, it is a medical process. So there has to be things that have to be signed in initial.

Rechelle Trejo: Consents, yes.

Allison Tyler Jones: Consents and that sort of thing. But I just felt like, wow, there wasn’t any shoving it under the rug. There was no like, “Well this is not a big deal. This almost never happens. Go ahead and just initial here.” It was like, “Here are all the bad things that could possibly happen. And this is what we would do in case that happened. And then this other really bad thing could happen. And this is what we would do if that happened.” So even though they were scary words that were coming out of your mouth, you had a plan for each one of those things. And while there might not be medical scary things with portrait photography, there are the questions of like, “Well, I want to look thin, what should we wear? Is this going to be expensive? How am I going to pay for it?” All of those kinds of things to get out ahead of that makes a huge difference.

Rechelle Trejo: Educating up front, I think is key for any business, anything that you’re going to be doing because it will save you the time and the headache on the back end.

Allison Tyler Jones: I love that. So when you were starting, anything that you kind of learned the hard way? Did you just roll into this fully formed, doing these great consultations or you just learned the hard way because people were calling you? What are some of the mistakes that you learned from as you were starting?

Rechelle Trejo: From the consultations themselves or from starting the business?

Allison Tyler Jones: Anything.

Rechelle Trejo: Anything?

Allison Tyler Jones: Whatever you want to talk about.

Rechelle Trejo: I would say the business side, it didn’t just happen right away. So we looked at it, we kind of grown out of the space and it was my brother, he’s a physician. So we were in a one little tiny room there and we had grown out of that space. And so it was time to either stop taking on new patients or time to level up, time to see what we could do next. But it wasn’t just, “All right, let’s have a party, let’s go start a new office.” It was looking at information, looking at numbers, looking at all that. Luckily, my husband’s brilliant and understands business. And so he went back and looked at all of the data from the previous year. He went and compiled all of it and he said, “Okay, this is what it is. These are the numbers. This is what you could do. Here you go.” And then gave me the foundational information to then be able to say, “Okay, this is how I want to do this.” And so that I think is huge when you’re starting a business is just really having information. Information kind of rules your decision, it has to.

Rechelle Trejo: And then it was the people. The people are a huge part of that, to really be able to see who you’re going to bring around you to make this be successful. And so having, obviously again, my husband with the business end of it, but the other girls that I had brought on that I had trained, those injectors, are incredibly talented. They knew what they were doing and I felt that confidence in them. I mean, I would let them inject my face. And so having that and knowing that, okay, we have the business side of it taken care of. We have amazing providers and we have patients that trust us, patients that we’ve been seeing. And so it was actually kind of easy to start the business itself.

Rechelle Trejo: What I didn’t know how to do was actually run the office and manage. I had never done that. I’d never run a business before.

Allison Tyler Jones: Sure.

Rechelle Trejo: And so that was probably and is still, I’m going to be honest with you, over year into my own practice, I’m still learning all the time and I’m adjusting and I’m very honest with my team about that. I tell them, I’m like, listen, “I’ve never done this before. I frankly don’t know all the answers, but we’ll figure it out.” But I think that openness and not honesty with them makes me more approachable. Where then if something isn’t working quite right or things aren’t quite the way they want it to, they know they can come to me. They know they can come to me and say, “Okay, Rechelle, we need to readjust here.”

Allison Tyler Jones: Sure.

Rechelle Trejo: And I’m going to look at it. I’m not going to just brush it off and be a dictator and say, “No, sorry. My way or you’re out of here.” It’s like, “Okay, let’s look at it.” And sometimes the answer is, “Yeah, we can adjust.” And sometimes it’s like, “You know what? We can’t do it that way but what if we did it this way?” And again, that’s where the information is huge is knowing that information.

Rechelle Trejo: But I think that was one of the things that I learned very early on is to acknowledge that I don’t know it all. And that’s okay. That I’m learning that I consider them all part of the team and that I want what’s best for them probably more than what they want. It’s almost like a mama bear with your kids. And you love your kids and you want them to do well and I feel that way with my whole team because I want them to be amazing. I want them to be able to achieve anything that they want to. And so I think if they feel that for me, then they feel like they can come and talk to me. But that would probably be one of the things I learned from the business.

Rechelle Trejo: From the consultation, trying to make things simple. So when people come in and you’re talking about what they need, it can be overwhelming. It’s like information overload. Right?

Allison Tyler Jones: Too many options.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah. Too many options. So listen, this is what you need. Tell me what your concerns are first. What is it that bothers you? What are your concerns? Okay, then this is what you need. And just kind of giving it to them very simply. I mean, I can tell them plastic surgery would be a better option for them, but if you don’t want to go that route, then this is what I can do. But I think just keeping the information simple and not overwhelming them with it, I think is one of the biggest things I learned with the consultation itself when I’m trying to sell per se, whatever it is I’m doing.

Allison Tyler Jones: Sure. And so how do you do that? Because I’m sure there’s so many things from all the things that you do, from microneedling to all the things like the vampire, what is it called? The vampire facial.

Rechelle Trejo: [crosstalk 00:21:16] Yeah, all the things. So it really goes down to what they want. What is their goal? And breaking up into you can do big picture and you can say, “Okay, this is what you want. Now let’s break it down into achievable steps.” So first we’re going to walk work on the quality of your skin, the canvas of your skin. Right? We’re going to make sure that looks amazing. And then we’re going to say, “Okay, now we’re going to restore volume where you lost volume,” that’ll be the next step. Or if the wrinkles drive me crazy, okay, so then we’re going to do the Botox and we’re going to like chill out that movement. But making it into achievable steps versus overwhelming, okay, now you have $10,000 that you’re going to be owing for this treatment, this whole thing. And then it makes it where it’s like, okay, I can do this and then I can do this and then I can do this.

Allison Tyler Jones: Got it. So it’s like a course of treatment basically.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah. And we’ll plan it out over the course of the year a lot of times and so that way they know what to expect so we can do it that way. But yes, I think a lot of times it’s hard when patients come in and it’s like, “I want my lips filled. That’s it.” And I’m looking at their face and I’m thinking, “Okay, wait. I know you don’t see this, but what you really, really need is volume in your chin actually, because your chin is recessed back. And if we inject your lips, you’re going to look like a duck and it’s going to look really, really awful. So, okay. I hear that you want your lips. I understand that, but we need to address your chin.”

Rechelle Trejo: And so it’s being honest with them as well and not just giving them what they want. There’s a lot of times where I tell patients, no, that what you are asking is not in your best interest and that’s okay to tell them. I may lose them as a patient, but you know what? They aren’t going to be walking around with my name on their face and I would rather have that.

Allison Tyler Jones: Absolutely. Yeah. That could not more align with what I’m trying to get photographers, what we’re all trying to do, is to basically be the expert, be that trusted advisor for our clients. And because of what everybody thinks they want right now, so our version of I just want my lips done is just give me the digital files.

Rechelle Trejo: Just give me the digital files. Yeah.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right.

Rechelle Trejo: I knew that was coming.

Allison Tyler Jones: How did you know that?

Rechelle Trejo: I may have asked you for files once, maybe, back in my really ignorant days.

Allison Tyler Jones: Well, and also, and then from the other standpoint too, is it’s like if somebody’s coming in and saying to you, just do my lips and you know from your expertise, it is going to make her look horrific.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah.

Allison Tyler Jones: Being willing to not just do what [crosstalk 00:23:40].

Rechelle Trejo: Doing what’s best for them.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. Right. To actually pull them back and say, “No, actually what you really need and what you really want is this. My highest and best use for you is that I know the structure of your face. And I know what’s going to happen when I inject your lips, that you’re going to have a witch chin and a witch nose, and you’re going to look like a plastic [inaudible 00:24:02]. It’s going to be horrible and so I need to tell you that.” And so that’s like with us, what that would be is yes, of course everybody wants the digital files and anything you put on the wall or in an album, you’re going to have social media files for. But really the highest and best use of you dressing your kids, dragging them down here and having spending time with me and me lighting you and creating these moments is to see that on your wall every day. It’s not just to have a digital file that’s living in your phone.

Rechelle Trejo: Yes. Or in a book that stays on your bookshelf and you don’t ever even open. I mean, while that’s amazing, really it’s the 72 inch print on my wall that I look at every single day and I’m like, “I love that print.”

Allison Tyler Jones: I love your latest family portrait. That’s one of my very favorites ever.

Rechelle Trejo: I know. It makes my momma heart happy and sad because I know they’re leaving.

Allison Tyler Jones: I know. I know. But they’re never leaving out of that frame. They’re going to be there forever.

Rechelle Trejo: No, but it is. And I think the same thing when I have patients who want more sometimes, right, you see that same comparison where it’s like, “Okay, Allison, I want all of the things.” And it’s like, “Okay, you don’t need all of the things. This is what you need.”

Allison Tyler Jones: You have some 25 year old that comes in and wants a full on balloon face because she wants to be preventive. And you’re like, “Your skin is beautiful.” [crosstalk 00:25:19].

Rechelle Trejo: You don’t need it, yeah. And I tell them all the time. I’m like, “I love you. No.” Especially with lips, I feel like people get body dysmorphia with their lips.

Allison Tyler Jones: It’s so true.

Rechelle Trejo: And so there’s lots of times where I tell them, I’m like, “No, you’re on filler probation.” And they’re like, “Well, can I go to rehab for it?” And I’m like, “No, you can’t. Sorry. I’m telling you no. Don’t even ask me again for six months. I don’t want to talk about it.” But the same thing with you, right? When you’re doing a photography session and they’re like, “I want all of these things,” and yet they really don’t need it. They don’t need all the shots of all the different family members, because really they’re only going to be picking one image of their entire family.

Allison Tyler Jones: Exactly. And then you’ve worn everybody out. Or I’ve had a lot of times where I’ve had say a young couple with their very first baby and you know how you are. You just think everybody can quit now because I’ve had the perfect child and they’re the most beautiful thing, even though they look like a raisin and they really aren’t that cute.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah, or a grumpy old man.

Allison Tyler Jones: I’m going to put like a 72 inch print of this newborn in the nursery. Well, in my world, there are some photographers that create art specifically in that way and they do it at that size. But for me, that’s lip probation for me. That’s like, okay. I know you love this baby, but you’re probably going to have more. She’s only going to be cuter and more interesting, more fun. And then when she’s two and maximum darling with her chubby fat cheeks-

Rechelle Trejo: Chubby cheeks, I know.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yes.

Rechelle Trejo: That’s when you want a picture.

Allison Tyler Jones: And she has her little fat belly hanging over the diaper. She’s telling you off while she’s still peeing in her pants.

Rechelle Trejo: Yes. With her hands that look like little chubby. You can see all the wrinkles and everything.

Allison Tyler Jones: I know. Like her little, the back of the hands look like a little play dough with the ice pick and the play dough. Yeah.

Rechelle Trejo: Why is it cute when you’re little but not when you’re older? That’s a whole nother topic. Right?

Allison Tyler Jones: I know. I know. Totally. Yeah. So true. But then you look back and you’re like, “Okay, what are we going to do with this huge image of this newborn? I mean, we thought she was the most beautiful baby, but really she kind of looked weird.” So I’m telling them as an older mom, my expertise. You have the medical training. I have the mom training. Which is like, “Look, I know you love this baby, and I’m going to give you what you want ish. Let’s manage this.

Rechelle Trejo: [crosstalk 00:27:20].

Allison Tyler Jones: You don’t need that. Let’s figure out what’s great now and then where we’re going to work over a long term period. So it’s very similar actually. You’re looking at a whole face, you’re looking at a whole appearance and you’re giving them a step by step of a way, a long term plan for their health and their beauty and to make sure that they don’t have adverse reactions. And we’re doing the same thing as portrait artists, as we want them to have just like we just hung your gallery in your hallway, to be able to look and see that very first picture of the two of you together that was shot in my living room.

Rechelle Trejo: Living room, yeah.

Allison Tyler Jones: And then now we have these gorgeous images of your oldest who is just getting ready to graduate from high school. And he still is such a baby though, he’s still got that baby face.

Rechelle Trejo: I know. So I think what it comes down to here then is really trust, trusting and I feel this so much with my patients. And like I said, they’re my favorites. The ones who come in and trust, the ones who come to you and say, “Okay, Allison, this is the wall I want, what do we do?” The patients who come into me and say, “Okay, Rechelle, what do we need to do?” Those are the best and they always get the best results.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yes.

Rechelle Trejo: Every single time, they are the ones who get the best results because they trusted the process. They trusted the skillset that you have and the training you’ve had and the experience you’ve had. And when they’re willing to trust you, it goes so good. Every single time it’s always like, “Wow, that was amazing.”

Allison Tyler Jones: It makes you more creative because then you’re like … You probably fight with about 50% of your clients. Maybe not quite that much.

Rechelle Trejo: I was going to say, yeah, [crosstalk 00:28:53].

Allison Tyler Jones: The more you go along, it gets less, the more people trust you and the more that your reputation is out there. But for sure in the early part of your career and in the middle, there’s less trust. But then when there are those clients that do trust you realize, my gosh, they got the best out of me because I was having so much fun. I could just do my thing. I didn’t have to spend any energy managing them and telling them how it wasn’t going to be or whatever. I could just bring my best for them. It’d be so nice if we could just … How could we create an ad that would let our clients know if you just-

Rechelle Trejo: That you need to just trust me.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yes, trust me.

Rechelle Trejo: If you could just let me do my thing. Just do it, just trust me.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yes. Yes. And so do you have clients like that will micromanage you? Do you have any clients that will come in and try to micromanage you and how do you handle that?

Rechelle Trejo: I do sometimes. Like I said, I think I’ve refined that process more and more and I’ve let some people go. I’ve said, “You know what? This isn’t just a good fit.” The other ones, they know me well enough and they know that I have their best intentions in my heart and so they typically are okay with me telling them, no, you don’t have this or you don’t get this.

Rechelle Trejo: So like typical dosing for Botox, let’s say is 64 units. That’s on-label, medical, typical dosing. And they come in and they’re like, “Okay, I want 10. And I want you to treat all of these areas with 10.” And I’m like, “Okay, wait. So basically what you’re telling me is you want one sixth of the recommended dosing to have the same effect though?” And they’re like, “Yeah, I do.” And that’s where I’m like, “Okay, wait. So do you do that with your birth control? You take one sixth of your birth control and hope that it works the same?” No, you don’t. You need to be able to say and have those standard words. Like, this is what we’re going to do. And I don’t always use 64, sometimes I’m using 40 depending on what they need.

Allison Tyler Jones: Sure.

Rechelle Trejo: But that’s where I think it’s just not a good fit if that’s what’s going to happen and they aren’t going to trust, then it maybe isn’t the best fit.

Allison Tyler Jones: And so are they saying they want 10 and not 60 because they don’t want to pay for 60.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah. No, yeah. They’re just like, this is what I want. I just want this and it’s going to be fine.

Allison Tyler Jones: It’s a price sensitivity thing. Yeah. I got you.

Rechelle Trejo: And it’s hard. And so those types of patients, a lot of times, I’ll tell them, I’m like, “Okay, we can do this. I don’t think it’s going to work for you.” And most of the time they don’t come back to me because-

Allison Tyler Jones: Because it didn’t work.

Rechelle Trejo: It didn’t work.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah. Or they know that they’re going to have to pay for it to work. Yeah.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah. They’ll come back and they’re like, “Oh, it didn’t work.” And I’m like, “I know it’s because you needed a lot more. That wasn’t what you needed.” So when I have patients who are nitpicking and trying to manage me, that’s when I realized that this isn’t because it’s going to drain me.

Allison Tyler Jones: Sure.

Rechelle Trejo: I come away, and it’s the same thing with like complications or anything like that, if they’re going to tell me how things are happening, then I’m like this isn’t a good fit. We need to have a working relationship where there’s mutual respect here. Absolutely, I’m going to listen to you. I’m going to hear what you say. If you tell me, I still want a little bit of movement here, I’m going to dose you lighter. That’s fine. But don’t tell me how many units or how many, whatever you need in your face. That’s where I get to use my judgment. Because in the end, it’s my name on your face, my work on your face and I don’t want you going around and telling people, “Oh yeah, Rechelle did this.” Or, “You know what? Rechelle was awful. She did it and it didn’t work at all.” Well that’s because you needed more.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right. Yeah, and I think that comes with experience and just not being afraid to let some people go, honestly. None of us want to do that. You want to be able to please everybody, but it’s just not possible.

Rechelle Trejo: But luckily I think, like you said, the longer you are in the business, the less that happens. Because then they come to you, they know, they either refer to you or they’ve kind of scoped you out on Instagram for long enough and they’re like, “All right, she doesn’t mess around. This is what it needs to be,” and then they’re more willing to. It’s I think when you’re first starting and you’re reaching for all that low hanging fruit, anything you can get, then that’s when it’s really, really hard. Because you do, you need all those patients, you need all that work. You need to be able to have that opportunity. But then as time it goes on, you realize, I don’t actually want that. That isn’t working for me anymore.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right. And I think the saddest thing, the thing that makes my heart hurt is when I see somebody that’s been in business for a long time and they’re still-

Rechelle Trejo: They don’t recognize their worth.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right. Exactly. Exactly. And that’s like my mission of The ReWork, the podcast, everything is to help photographers realize the value of what they’re bringing. And when you’re first starting, you don’t see it. I think sometimes you’ll never see it unless you learn to look for it, unless you learn to realize, wait, just because like right now it’s easy for you to do what you do. You’re trained, you know exactly what you’re doing. I’m sure there are some procedures that are more difficult than others. But to make these eyes between my eyebrows disappear, this is not something that you’re going to have to go read a book on and stay up at night worrying. It could be done in a hot second and you know how to do that. But just because it’s easy for you doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have value for me and that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t pay.

Rechelle Trejo: Yeah. And the time. I mean, I think about, okay, my schooling, my insurance to be able to do this, the business, to run the business, all of it. The product itself, it’s very expensive. And so there has to be value in not just that. Literally, I mean, Botox takes like five minutes, right? Yeah. And if you were to look at it just in time wise, it should not cost as much as it does.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right.

Rechelle Trejo: But that’s not what it’s about. It’s about the experience, the years of experience that you have put into it, the training. So I’m a national trainer as well, so I actually go and train for both the top two pharmaceutical companies. I go and train other injectors on how to do it, how to do all of these different treatments. There’s a reason for that. It’s because I know what I’m doing.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right.

Rechelle Trejo: And so being able to have that confidence that, okay, I know how to do this and I know how to teach others how to do this, it makes it where you can understand your value a lot more. The same with you, right? After years of doing this, you’ve worked out those kinks. You know what works and what doesn’t work and there’s value to that. There’s value to the time invested into your niche.

Allison Tyler Jones: Right. And the value really because I think clients like to know that you know what you’re doing. I love knowing that the person that did my Botox is a national trainer. I didn’t even know that, but now that I do it’s a bit more special.

Rechelle Trejo: There you go.

Allison Tyler Jones: And while some of my clients might know, oh, well she wrote a book and so that was exciting. Really, they don’t really care about us. They just care about the value to them. But the value to me is that I know I can walk out and feel like just exactly what you said when we first started talking, I feel like I look good. I feel like I look the best version of my 57 year old self. I don’t look-

Rechelle Trejo: You look amazing.

Allison Tyler Jones: Like I’m trying to be 30 or 20. But I feel like I look as a beautiful older woman, a mature mom. And so I think that’s the value to me. It’s not your time and everything. I mean, while that is part of the value in your own mind that gives you the confidence to charge what you do, right?

Rechelle Trejo: Yes.

Allison Tyler Jones: But the value is what it does for me.

Rechelle Trejo: Yes. Absolutely.

Allison Tyler Jones: And so same thing for you, the value for you is that every time you walk past that 72 inch print or maybe you had a day with your kids where you wanted to kill them, you can look at that and go, no, I actually really do still love them and they can look at that and see the evidence of that every single day in your house. I can look at my beautiful face, know that I don’t have wrinkles between my eyebrows, but yet my forehead still moves so I don’t look like Nicole Kidman, deer in the headlights. I wish I looked like Nicole Kidman. I’d take that immobile face if I could have the body. Right?

Rechelle Trejo: But no, it is actually. So it’s funny this last picture you did too, there is. There’s so much value to it. I mean, we have big artwork from other times that you’ve done as well, that I still have my house and I love. But this last one isn’t the typical picture I like, we are all grouped together. Right? We’re all kind of piled on each other, like the big huggy ones. And normally when I see those pictures, I’m like, “Nah, pass. Don’t like it.”

Allison Tyler Jones: Right.

Rechelle Trejo: There is something about the timing of that picture. The fact that it was the year that my kids are starting to leave the nest and we are all grouped together, that when I saw that picture and I’m not an emotional person, I don’t run on high emotion. When I saw that picture, I was like, Oh my gosh, my babies are going to be leaving. It’s never going to be the same. They’ll come back. It’s going to be fine. They’ll always going to be my kids. But there was something about that picture that literally captured my heart and I thought, no, I want that picture big in my house because I always want to remember this time when it was just my little core family. Yeah. So the value of it to me was that moment that you captured, 100%. And yeah, it was absolutely worth it.

Allison Tyler Jones: I love that. That’s such great input. I appreciate that so much. Well, I would love for you to tell our listeners where they can find you because I’d love for them to look at your Instagram feed and see what a great job you do at that. Give us your website, kind of tell where they can find you.

Rechelle Trejo: All right. Awesome. So Auri, A-U-R-I, aesthetics is the name of the business with an A. Aesthetics is built with an E with an a, but when you’re talking about esthetician, it’s an E when you’re talking about the actual practice, it’s an A. So A-E-S is how you would spell aesthetics. And then the website is that as well, auriaesthetics.com. My Instagram is my name and my dear mom made my name a little bit challenging. So it’s Rechelle, R-E-C-H-E-L-L-E, Trejo, T-R-E-J-O, aesthetics with a crazy A again. So Rechelle Trejo Aesthetics.

Allison Tyler Jones: Okay. And we’ll link to all of it in this show notes so that they can get there. But I highly recommend that all of our listeners go to Rechelle’s social media feed and see how she educates her clients. It’s really quite amazing. I think you’ll get an education. And if you can’t fly Arizona and have her do your aesthetics for you, I think you could take your Instagram feed and show that to an esthetician and say, “Look, I want to make sure you’re not doing too much,” or whatever, because there’s just volumes of information there about how it should and shouldn’t be done.

Rechelle Trejo: And I’m more than happy if I have people who reach out to me and that live in different places to recommend people who I know in different states.

Allison Tyler Jones: Awesome.

Rechelle Trejo: And so if you live in a different state and you’re thinking you want to do this, most of the time, I can tell you somewhere nearby that you would be able to go and get good quality work. So yeah, I can definitely reach out with that too.

Allison Tyler Jones: That’s great. Well, Rechelle, as always so good to see you. I appreciate you so much taking the time out of your busy schedule to help us because this is going to help a lot of people.

Rechelle Trejo: Well, I appreciate you, Allison. Thank you so much. We need to get you back on the books.

Allison Tyler Jones: I know. You can see the forehead is-

Rechelle Trejo: It’s starting to move, yeah. Just a little bit.

Allison Tyler Jones: Yeah, it’s time. It’s time. Thank you.

Rechelle Trejo: Yes. Thank you so much.

Allison Tyler Jones: Do you know someone who would really benefit from this episode of The ReWork? Maybe a fellow photographer who’s in the trenches with you and always looking to level up their biz, or perhaps you have a friend who is struggling to make their business work. I would be so grateful if you would share this episode with them. All you have to do is head to the platform where you are listening, click the share icon and text it or email it to the person that you think could need it most. Thank you so much for doing that. And while you’re there, if you have a chance and can give us a review, it would mean the world. We are a micro, tiny podcast, and we’re trying to get the word out to as many portrait photographers as possible to help them build better businesses and better lives for their family. And if you would help us do that, it would mean the world. Thank you so much. And we’ll see you next time on The ReWork.

Recorded: You can find more great resources from Allison at dotherework.com and on Instagram at do.the.rework.