For this week's Practitioner Spotlight interview, I spoke to Hannah Coello, owner of Coello Cosmetic Clinic and founder of Coello Coaching, who spilled the beans on starting her own coaching business to help other aesthetic practitioners become better entrepreneurs, and explained why talking money is not dirty.
Practitioner Spotlight: Hannah Coello
Hi Hannah! You talk on your profile about being both an artist and a nurse. How did this combination first come about?
I always had a creative eye and enjoyed doing art when I was younger, and then I went straight into nursing in my late teens and left the artistry there. I’d always been interested in aesthetics as a nurse but couldn’t put my finger on why at first. Then I realised it was all about facial proportions - just like art - and I knew that having artistic skills was as important as understanding facial anatomy. It’s a really important combination in aesthetics. Over lockdown, I picked up a pencil again for the first time in years, and looking back at my old drawings I can see that most of them concentrated on the face and its proportions. I operate at my best in a creative space.
It took me a while to get into aesthetics, initially, because fear held me back, but I took a leap of faith. Helping people transform the way they feel about themselves was what drew me into the industry. That really fulfils me.
And now you’re a coach as well! Tell me more about why you started your coaching business.
When I first started out in aesthetics, it felt like a relatively new industry and it almost felt quite unsafe as a practitioner in many respects. The support systems weren’t as good, courses didn’t seem formal enough and aftercare following a course didn’t seem adequate. I had so many fears: not knowing who to turn to; fear of putting myself out there; fear of social media; fear of working on my own; fear of complications. And so much anxiety and overwhelm.
As time went on and I became more confident, I thought about how amazing it would be to help out other people who were having all of these initial worries and feeling how I once felt. In this industry you need to be not just a good medic but an entrepreneur too, and it’s quite difficult for many aesthetic practitioners to have a business head at the beginning. I wanted to provide support and a service that would help them tackle mindset blocks, breaking them down and giving practitioners practical steps to move on to the next stage and become a great entrepreneur.
I’ve offered sessions to quite a few clients, and feedback has been really good so far. I was a public health nurse for several years, so coaching is something I still enjoy - motivating and helping others. I want people to be able to step into their own success, because it can be done. I love the energy and positivity that comes with it. Life can be hard enough, so if we can help each other and spread the positivity, I’m all for that.
I think a lot of people see the aesthetics industry as being quite dog eat dog. It’s also quite saturated now and people often worry that there’s not enough business, which can lead to that mindset for some but, actually, when you really break it down, there’s enough business for everybody, and patients will always choose a practitioner they feel comfortable with. It’s about putting yourself out there on your social media platforms and letting people get to know you instead of hiding away.
I also think it’s important to change the language we use when we talk to ourselves and understand that it’s ok to say, “I’m an entrepreneur in the making”. Talking about money is not dirty; it’s part of business. If you’re getting more clients and bringing more money in, that means you can invest that money into more services and do more courses that will, ultimately, help your patients.
That’s a really great bit of advice! What are your goals for the future, Hannah?
So many things. I want to keep investing in the coaching side of things because it’s already had such a great response. I’ve seen some amazing transformations in such a short period of time and definitely want to stay on this journey with practitioners and reach more people.
In terms of aesthetics, I want to normalise treatments for transgender patients and for male patients too. It makes me so sad when people don’t feel they can access treatments, so more work needs to be done to address this. I want to keep growing the business as much as possible.
My long term goal is to split my time 50:50 between treating patients and coaching. I love both equally. I really enjoy working in aesthetics because that’s when I can be my most creative and I enjoy seeing patients, but I also love being able to give back to practitioners through the coaching side of things.
