December 4, 2025 • 17 mins
Brandon Mullen is the CEO and driving force behind MPWR Aesthetics + Wellness, a fast-growing brand dedicated to helping people look and feel their absolute best. With a focus on personalized care, cutting-edge treatments, and a compassionate client experience, Brandon leads a team committed to confidence, empowerment, and whole-body wellness. His vision blends medical expertise with modern aesthetics to deliver results that are both natural and transformative. Under Brandon’s leadership, MPWR continues to expand its footprint and impact — redefining self-care, one confident client at a time. https://www.mpwraesthetics.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
And welcome in. This is the CEO's used to No podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hertwell, let's say hello to Brandon Mullen.
Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Thanks for having me, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
All right, tell us everything we need to know about
Empower Aesthetics and Wellness.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
So I started Empower Esthetics and Wellness a year ago
to get accessible injectibles and skincare for local people in
the Greensburg and Harrison City areas.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
All right, what other services do you provide?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
So in our Pen Township location that we just opened recently,
we do hydrodermabrasion, which is kind of like a light
exfoliation to the skin. We do micro needling, derma planing,
biostimulation with injectibles that you probably have never heard of,
but botox and filler that everybody is kind of used
to from the past twenty thirty years.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
All right, what do you specialize in that?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So I really like the undetectable injectible.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
So when you come in and look for a solution
to a problem, like the number one thing I've hearing
lately is, oh, I hate the lines above my lips.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Ladies hate that from smoking?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Just age you know, just general life and genetics, and
they want a solution to kind of help fix those lines.
So biostimulation with fillers, particularly radis and sculptra kind of
combined with a typical HA filler that everybody is used to,
is something that we can curate to someone's treatment plan.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So when did you start into this field?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So I have been a fine connoisseur of aesthetics for
the better part of fifteen years personally, and I started
to get into actually injecting more of the business end
of it a little over five years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
All right, So you're is this your passion? Do you
love doing this?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Absolutely? And I never work a day in my life
because I just love what I do, right.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
All right? So you said about fifteen years ago and
tell us that journey.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
So my first experience with cetting BOWT was something that
I never want to recreate for anyone. It was a
plastic surgery resident that we worked with at UPMC East.
I was a critical care nurse at the time, and
he said, you have a really big forehead. And he
didn't say that very politely, but he said, You're going
to need a lot of talks. And I'm like, uh, thanks,
(02:19):
I don't know what that means, but he kind of
made me feel like a little weird about it, but
I liked the result. I had a very I called
it a mountain range on my forehead, but it really
bothered me every time I looked in the mirror. So
it was kind of an emotional problem that I had,
and talks was the avenue to fix that.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Did it bother you prior to saying that, or did
it become self conscious after you said that?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, it definitely made me adherent to getting it every
three to four months for sure, because I didn't want
that to come back.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So you have a nursing background, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I do.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I was a bedside nurse in critical care when I
first started out in two thousand and nine, and throughout
the years I kind of got into more of the
business end from the nurse perspective, worked for an insurance company.
I actually worked for a software company that was healthcare
focused for a while, and then COVID kind of changed everything.
And at the end of COVID, my friend opened up
(03:11):
her own studio in Virginia and I helped her manage
that practice and grow and scale that for about five years.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And then after that you decided to open up your
own own own business. So tell us about that and
what was that like starting up.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
So it was kind of a unique experience because I
kind of had an idea of what it would be
to own a medspa, and in the state of Pennsylvania
you have to collaborate with a medical director. Being a nurse,
I can't own my medspa technically, so I always say,
like CEO and founder, my medical director actually owns the
entity itself. But you know, I knew what I was
getting into, but you really don't know until you start
(03:49):
to go through it. So I will say there's a
very high emotional roller coaster that you know, changes by
the day time of day. It starts out, you know,
a little low in the morning, but you're high in
the afternoon. So it's it's definitely been a whirlwind.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
When you first opened. Do you remember your first client?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Actually I don't because we did like a soft launch
and we first started in Greensburg. So my buddy, doctor
Josh Perry, owns a very large dental practice, Modern Dental
Associates in Greensburg, and for years I've been telling him,
you know, you have ten thousand square feet and the
whole entire left side of it was basically unused, and
(04:31):
I was like, let me put a couple rooms in
here and create a brand and an experience. I didn't
want it to be like I'm going to the dentist
to get my botox. So I needed to kind of
like curate an experience that wasn't like, Hey, get in
this dental chair and I'm going to you know, jab
your forehead with a needle. So the Greensburg location was
kind of the incubator for what is now more of
(04:54):
the Hub, which is Penn Township, which we just opened
in September.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Tell us about the name, all right. First of all,
it's in power but spelled mp w R. Tell us
about how you came up with the name and how
it's how it's served you.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So empower is actually a just a wordplay on empower,
like E M power. So empower everyone to you know,
have the confidence that they need to, you know, feel loved, valued,
secure throughout you know, just their daily life, and sometimes
that involves the things that we do. So I wanted
it to be something that was more all encompassing and welcoming,
(05:31):
and it was actually the name of the consulting company
that I created because I wasn't sure what was going
to happen when I started working for my friend and
managing her medspas. But also I was not really comfortable
leaving my kind of cushy software job, and you know,
working in tech, you know, having a W two job
and going to work for yourself is very nerve wracking.
(05:53):
So I kind of created the LLC as a to
kind of have a little bit of a history and longevity.
And you know, I I've done a couple of things
with that since, but you know, it was that's really
where it came from.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
You're a very interesting cat. You have a nurse, a
software background. You also had a business background with your friend,
and then you decided to open up your own business
as an entrepreneur. Let me dig a little deeper, Brandon,
What what kind of person are you? What? What what
are your What are some of your passions other than empower.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, I really enjoy just working in general.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I have two other podcasts that have kind of come
to fruition organically throughout the past couple of years. One
of those being The Aesthetic Injector Gang, which was initially
the premise was there's eight of us that kind of
traveled around and went to a set of conferences to
learn and grow together. So you know, we we had
the grand ambitions of kind of co hosting it together
(06:53):
and bringing different guests on. It's it's kind of uh
changed directions throughout the past couple years, but it's still
something that is very valuable for people that are looking
to get into the aesthetics industry. So we have that,
and then last year we created another podcast. My friend
Aaron McNeil and I. She is a SPA director. She
(07:17):
is more apt to coach owners and entrepreneurs who are
in the MEDSPA space that have a lot of staff.
So she came from a background where she would manage
a SPA from like the four seasons, like that kind
of level. So she kind of helps to create business
(07:40):
people out of people that typically aren't business people. So
people in the medical industry are not business minded or
put that first. We're very concentrated on clinical outcomes and
not necessarily the bottom line or how much we're expensing
or how much our expenses are or are cost of
good sould.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And all that fun.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Mumbo jump both from economics that I barely paid attention to,
you know, so she really helps with that. So we
created the Injector Business Blueprint podcast to kind of share
our experiences as at the time I was a practice
manager and she was more owner coaching. So this year
it's going to look a little bit different because you know,
(08:20):
we're we're both in a little bit of a different
spot ourselves.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So where can we find these podcasts?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
They're in Spotify in the Apple Store, so you can
also find them on my Instagram too. I'm the th
underscore Esthetic Consultant. I wish I could have fell in
love with a shorter tag, but you know, that is
what it is and I'm not changing it now.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And what are some of the topics that you present
on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
We talk about a lot of the trials and tribulations
that you know with the Aesthetics Injector Gang. It's kind
of like industry pain points as far as as you know,
helping educate patients on how to find a credible injector
and how to go about finding someone that is reputable
(09:12):
in your area. But it's also very wide ranging and
you know, people that are going to nursing school and
thinking that aesthetics is so easy and you can make
a million dollars in your first year, and it's so
easy and looks glamorous. We kind of expose and peel
back that onion and you know, give them a little
bit of the you know, what really goes on behind
the scenes. You know, like today me waking up at
(09:34):
two o'clock in the morning and updating my website and
creating new forms and you know things like that. So
we you know, it's not all doom and gloom. It
is a lot of fun. But we want to shed
some like realism because I think a lot of people
look at social media and see all of the rosy
pictures and not necessarily what's what goes on behind the
(09:55):
scenes to make that happen.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So what has been your biggest challenge then?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I would say my biggest challenge personally as a business
owner is letting go of control. You asked about me.
I'm in aries. I'm very type A. I never turned
my brain off. It's very hard and relinquishing control of
like marketing, social media. I know you guys had leekon
(10:21):
digital on here recently, you know, I tried to let
go of some things to them, and it went well
for a little while, but I just had to take
it back because there's some things that I just can't
relay and let other people handle. But that's more my problem,
and I know I need to work on like leadership,
so you know, I'll get there. Maybe twenty twenty six
(10:43):
is my year, all.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Right, So tell us about the rest of your team then.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So I have two part time injectors, and I've known
each of them for about fifteen and twenty years respectively,
and they were nurses. And the reason that, well, they
are nurses, but the reason that I really brought them
on was because they showed hustle and grit for the
past couple of years because they have been, you know,
tapping me on the side, and they were in various
(11:08):
forms of nursing themselves. But they wanted to get into
the aesthetics industry. And this is not an industry where
you just hand in a resume and get a job
like a typical employment opportunity. You really need to make
your own resume, and in aesthetics it's not cheap, it's
not easy. You have to find credible training courses, you
(11:29):
never stop learning, and people don't want to do that.
They want to just you know, put in that resume
or just walk in and say, you know what, I'd
like filler.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I think I'm really going to be good at it.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
You're telling me it's not easy and I can't make
a million dollars in the first year.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
No, oh you cannot. I'm sorry. I mean stick to
your day job, Johnny. You're doing a great job. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
All right, So how do you give back to the community.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
So we like to be involved in a lot of
local organizations. So I'm a fan of having little experiences
at the especially the Penn Township location because it's a
little bit bigger. So I'll do like a demonstration of
for example, micro needling that people don't know what it
is and they're afraid of it. So what's better to
do than do a live demo of someone actually getting
(12:15):
micro needling. So when I say microeadling to you, what
does that mean to you?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I'm not sure?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
What do you think? Best guess I would.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I'm guessing you know, located like a small area.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
No, so micro not a good guess.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
But people like to think that or it's painful, like
they associate it with pain. They think it's a bunch
of like stabbing things.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So you know that doesn't bother me. That's ensure. You
run into a lot of people who are but that
that's never badly.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
It's the people that have the most tattoos that are
afraid of needles. And I'm like, how did you go
through hours of getting scraped with a needle? Like this
is going to be so much less eventful.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
That's funny. Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have guessed that
at all.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Very true that and guys.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
And all right, so again, how else do you give
back to the community.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Sorry, you can tell I have terrible ADHD.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
So circling back to that, So I like to do
these little events, but to keep people accountable, I will
charge a nominal fee to get them to come, and
then I'll donate that to a charity. Okay, So that
Pittsburgh Toys for Tykes is local organization that is part
of the Greater Pittsburgh Business Connection, which has been a
great opportunity for me as a business owner to help
(13:23):
myself grow and connect with other business owners too. But
they're very heavily involved and ingrained in that organization that
keeps toys in Pittsburgh in the hands of kids that
live in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
You talked a little bit about marketing, and I think
you've you've kind of incorporated some of your philanthropic things
with your marketing, and it sounds like you're you're hustling.
You want people to you want to expose people to.
What you do is one way, but what are some
other things that What other marketing things have you seen
(13:59):
that has worked for you?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So you have to go where your customers are. So
I am a I have serial gym memberships to a
lot of different places, so Pilate Studios, Tona fid Yoga
in Greensburg. I tried to do crossbit again, but my
hip is too old to tolerate it. I am a
part of two different chambers, two different private networking groups.
(14:24):
I am always hustling.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Wow, yeah, that's amazing. Is there anything that we didn't
cover that you want people to know? Just one other thing.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I do have one other staff member, so I have
an esthetician that when we open the Penn Township location,
she had come in put her resume down like and
I have gotten the most ridiculous resumes. I will say
that people need to really chat GPT that or learn
or take a class, because I've gotten the most ridiculous
requests or expressions of interest to be employed by me.
(14:54):
So she handed a resume, It had a cover letter,
it was spelled Wright. I was like, Wow, you've checked
a lot of boxes, but I don't need an esthetician
right now. So long story short, when the time came,
I reached out to her. We had a great conversation
and she's now a part of the team and doing
a majority of the facials, micro needling, derma planning in
the Penn Township location.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
All right, so what are some of your plans for
twenty twenty six and beyond.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
So I really want to focus more on the wellness aspect,
so we started doing I really honestly didn't even want
to do fillers, but after we opened about a month
in Greensburg, people were walking around and requesting it, so
we brought it on. But this year was really about
injectables and the aesthetics and kind of dialing in our
skincare and what is going to work and get the
(15:38):
best results. So I really want to get into wellness.
So we're going to do wellness Wednesdays starting in Q
one twenty six. Through all of these networking opportunities and
just general, you know, just randomly meeting people and people
referring word of mouth. I met some great influencers that
don't understand how awesome they are and going to help
(16:01):
them kind of explore their passions and do some small
group fitness classes. Katie, my injector, really wants to get
into health and wellness. And we now have the ability
to draw labs on site, so we can do like
allergy testing or any kind of labs out of pocket,
so you don't have to go to your standard doctor's
(16:21):
office or an outpatient center and have your lab drawn.
You can do it in the comfort of our cozy
space and pen township.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
It's too bad you don't aspire to do a lot
of things on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I know, I really want to get basket weaving down,
but I just can't find the time.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Time geez, you know. And if somebody wants to find you, where,
where's the best place to start?
Speaker 3 (16:41):
So Instagram is a great place on there. You'll find
all the links in a link tree somewhere. But it's
MPWR esthetics A E S T H E T I
C S and that is also the website and Power
Aesthetics dot com. Yeah, I'll send a carrier pigeon whatever.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Brandon from Empower Aesthetics and Wellness and a CEO you
Should Know, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Thank you, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
This has been the CEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's
commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank
you so much for listening.
And welcome in. This is the CEO's used to No podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hertwell, let's say hello to Brandon Mullen.
Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Thanks for having me, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
All right, tell us everything we need to know about
Empower Aesthetics and Wellness.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
So I started Empower Esthetics and Wellness a year ago
to get accessible injectibles and skincare for local people in
the Greensburg and Harrison City areas.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
All right, what other services do you provide?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
So in our Pen Township location that we just opened recently,
we do hydrodermabrasion, which is kind of like a light
exfoliation to the skin. We do micro needling, derma planing,
biostimulation with injectibles that you probably have never heard of,
but botox and filler that everybody is kind of used
to from the past twenty thirty years.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
All right, what do you specialize in that?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So I really like the undetectable injectible.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
So when you come in and look for a solution
to a problem, like the number one thing I've hearing
lately is, oh, I hate the lines above my lips.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Ladies hate that from smoking?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Just age you know, just general life and genetics, and
they want a solution to kind of help fix those lines.
So biostimulation with fillers, particularly radis and sculptra kind of
combined with a typical HA filler that everybody is used to,
is something that we can curate to someone's treatment plan.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So when did you start into this field?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So I have been a fine connoisseur of aesthetics for
the better part of fifteen years personally, and I started
to get into actually injecting more of the business end
of it a little over five years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
All right, So you're is this your passion? Do you
love doing this?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Absolutely? And I never work a day in my life
because I just love what I do, right.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
All right? So you said about fifteen years ago and
tell us that journey.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
So my first experience with cetting BOWT was something that
I never want to recreate for anyone. It was a
plastic surgery resident that we worked with at UPMC East.
I was a critical care nurse at the time, and
he said, you have a really big forehead. And he
didn't say that very politely, but he said, You're going
to need a lot of talks. And I'm like, uh, thanks,
(02:19):
I don't know what that means, but he kind of
made me feel like a little weird about it, but
I liked the result. I had a very I called
it a mountain range on my forehead, but it really
bothered me every time I looked in the mirror. So
it was kind of an emotional problem that I had,
and talks was the avenue to fix that.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Did it bother you prior to saying that, or did
it become self conscious after you said that?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Well, it definitely made me adherent to getting it every
three to four months for sure, because I didn't want
that to come back.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So you have a nursing background, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I do.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I was a bedside nurse in critical care when I
first started out in two thousand and nine, and throughout
the years I kind of got into more of the
business end from the nurse perspective, worked for an insurance company.
I actually worked for a software company that was healthcare
focused for a while, and then COVID kind of changed everything.
And at the end of COVID, my friend opened up
(03:11):
her own studio in Virginia and I helped her manage
that practice and grow and scale that for about five years.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And then after that you decided to open up your
own own own business. So tell us about that and
what was that like starting up.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
So it was kind of a unique experience because I
kind of had an idea of what it would be
to own a medspa, and in the state of Pennsylvania
you have to collaborate with a medical director. Being a nurse,
I can't own my medspa technically, so I always say,
like CEO and founder, my medical director actually owns the
entity itself. But you know, I knew what I was
getting into, but you really don't know until you start
(03:49):
to go through it. So I will say there's a
very high emotional roller coaster that you know, changes by
the day time of day. It starts out, you know,
a little low in the morning, but you're high in
the afternoon. So it's it's definitely been a whirlwind.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
When you first opened. Do you remember your first client?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Actually I don't because we did like a soft launch
and we first started in Greensburg. So my buddy, doctor
Josh Perry, owns a very large dental practice, Modern Dental
Associates in Greensburg, and for years I've been telling him,
you know, you have ten thousand square feet and the
whole entire left side of it was basically unused, and
(04:31):
I was like, let me put a couple rooms in
here and create a brand and an experience. I didn't
want it to be like I'm going to the dentist
to get my botox. So I needed to kind of
like curate an experience that wasn't like, Hey, get in
this dental chair and I'm going to you know, jab
your forehead with a needle. So the Greensburg location was
kind of the incubator for what is now more of
(04:54):
the Hub, which is Penn Township, which we just opened
in September.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Tell us about the name, all right. First of all,
it's in power but spelled mp w R. Tell us
about how you came up with the name and how
it's how it's served you.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So empower is actually a just a wordplay on empower,
like E M power. So empower everyone to you know,
have the confidence that they need to, you know, feel loved, valued,
secure throughout you know, just their daily life, and sometimes
that involves the things that we do. So I wanted
it to be something that was more all encompassing and welcoming,
(05:31):
and it was actually the name of the consulting company
that I created because I wasn't sure what was going
to happen when I started working for my friend and
managing her medspas. But also I was not really comfortable
leaving my kind of cushy software job, and you know,
working in tech, you know, having a W two job
and going to work for yourself is very nerve wracking.
(05:53):
So I kind of created the LLC as a to
kind of have a little bit of a history and longevity.
And you know, I I've done a couple of things
with that since, but you know, it was that's really
where it came from.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
You're a very interesting cat. You have a nurse, a
software background. You also had a business background with your friend,
and then you decided to open up your own business
as an entrepreneur. Let me dig a little deeper, Brandon,
What what kind of person are you? What? What what
are your What are some of your passions other than empower.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, I really enjoy just working in general.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I have two other podcasts that have kind of come
to fruition organically throughout the past couple of years. One
of those being The Aesthetic Injector Gang, which was initially
the premise was there's eight of us that kind of
traveled around and went to a set of conferences to
learn and grow together. So you know, we we had
the grand ambitions of kind of co hosting it together
(06:53):
and bringing different guests on. It's it's kind of uh
changed directions throughout the past couple years, but it's still
something that is very valuable for people that are looking
to get into the aesthetics industry. So we have that,
and then last year we created another podcast. My friend
Aaron McNeil and I. She is a SPA director. She
(07:17):
is more apt to coach owners and entrepreneurs who are
in the MEDSPA space that have a lot of staff.
So she came from a background where she would manage
a SPA from like the four seasons, like that kind
of level. So she kind of helps to create business
(07:40):
people out of people that typically aren't business people. So
people in the medical industry are not business minded or
put that first. We're very concentrated on clinical outcomes and
not necessarily the bottom line or how much we're expensing
or how much our expenses are or are cost of
good sould.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And all that fun.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Mumbo jump both from economics that I barely paid attention to,
you know, so she really helps with that. So we
created the Injector Business Blueprint podcast to kind of share
our experiences as at the time I was a practice
manager and she was more owner coaching. So this year
it's going to look a little bit different because you know,
(08:20):
we're we're both in a little bit of a different
spot ourselves.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
So where can we find these podcasts?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
They're in Spotify in the Apple Store, so you can
also find them on my Instagram too. I'm the th
underscore Esthetic Consultant. I wish I could have fell in
love with a shorter tag, but you know, that is
what it is and I'm not changing it now.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And what are some of the topics that you present
on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
We talk about a lot of the trials and tribulations
that you know with the Aesthetics Injector Gang. It's kind
of like industry pain points as far as as you know,
helping educate patients on how to find a credible injector
and how to go about finding someone that is reputable
(09:12):
in your area. But it's also very wide ranging and
you know, people that are going to nursing school and
thinking that aesthetics is so easy and you can make
a million dollars in your first year, and it's so
easy and looks glamorous. We kind of expose and peel
back that onion and you know, give them a little
bit of the you know, what really goes on behind
the scenes. You know, like today me waking up at
(09:34):
two o'clock in the morning and updating my website and
creating new forms and you know things like that. So
we you know, it's not all doom and gloom. It
is a lot of fun. But we want to shed
some like realism because I think a lot of people
look at social media and see all of the rosy
pictures and not necessarily what's what goes on behind the
(09:55):
scenes to make that happen.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So what has been your biggest challenge then?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I would say my biggest challenge personally as a business
owner is letting go of control. You asked about me.
I'm in aries. I'm very type A. I never turned
my brain off. It's very hard and relinquishing control of
like marketing, social media. I know you guys had leekon
(10:21):
digital on here recently, you know, I tried to let
go of some things to them, and it went well
for a little while, but I just had to take
it back because there's some things that I just can't
relay and let other people handle. But that's more my problem,
and I know I need to work on like leadership,
so you know, I'll get there. Maybe twenty twenty six
(10:43):
is my year, all.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Right, So tell us about the rest of your team then.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So I have two part time injectors, and I've known
each of them for about fifteen and twenty years respectively,
and they were nurses. And the reason that, well, they
are nurses, but the reason that I really brought them
on was because they showed hustle and grit for the
past couple of years because they have been, you know,
tapping me on the side, and they were in various
(11:08):
forms of nursing themselves. But they wanted to get into
the aesthetics industry. And this is not an industry where
you just hand in a resume and get a job
like a typical employment opportunity. You really need to make
your own resume, and in aesthetics it's not cheap, it's
not easy. You have to find credible training courses, you
(11:29):
never stop learning, and people don't want to do that.
They want to just you know, put in that resume
or just walk in and say, you know what, I'd
like filler.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I think I'm really going to be good at it.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
You're telling me it's not easy and I can't make
a million dollars in the first year.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
No, oh you cannot. I'm sorry. I mean stick to
your day job, Johnny. You're doing a great job. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
All right, So how do you give back to the community.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
So we like to be involved in a lot of
local organizations. So I'm a fan of having little experiences
at the especially the Penn Township location because it's a
little bit bigger. So I'll do like a demonstration of
for example, micro needling that people don't know what it
is and they're afraid of it. So what's better to
do than do a live demo of someone actually getting
(12:15):
micro needling. So when I say microeadling to you, what
does that mean to you?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I'm not sure?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
What do you think? Best guess I would.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I'm guessing you know, located like a small area.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
No, so micro not a good guess.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
But people like to think that or it's painful, like
they associate it with pain. They think it's a bunch
of like stabbing things.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So you know that doesn't bother me. That's ensure. You
run into a lot of people who are but that
that's never badly.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
It's the people that have the most tattoos that are
afraid of needles. And I'm like, how did you go
through hours of getting scraped with a needle? Like this
is going to be so much less eventful.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
That's funny. Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have guessed that
at all.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Very true that and guys.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
And all right, so again, how else do you give
back to the community.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Sorry, you can tell I have terrible ADHD.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
So circling back to that, So I like to do
these little events, but to keep people accountable, I will
charge a nominal fee to get them to come, and
then I'll donate that to a charity. Okay, So that
Pittsburgh Toys for Tykes is local organization that is part
of the Greater Pittsburgh Business Connection, which has been a
great opportunity for me as a business owner to help
(13:23):
myself grow and connect with other business owners too. But
they're very heavily involved and ingrained in that organization that
keeps toys in Pittsburgh in the hands of kids that
live in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
You talked a little bit about marketing, and I think
you've you've kind of incorporated some of your philanthropic things
with your marketing, and it sounds like you're you're hustling.
You want people to you want to expose people to.
What you do is one way, but what are some
other things that What other marketing things have you seen
(13:59):
that has worked for you?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So you have to go where your customers are. So
I am a I have serial gym memberships to a
lot of different places, so Pilate Studios, Tona fid Yoga
in Greensburg. I tried to do crossbit again, but my
hip is too old to tolerate it. I am a
part of two different chambers, two different private networking groups.
(14:24):
I am always hustling.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Wow, yeah, that's amazing. Is there anything that we didn't
cover that you want people to know? Just one other thing.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I do have one other staff member, so I have
an esthetician that when we open the Penn Township location,
she had come in put her resume down like and
I have gotten the most ridiculous resumes. I will say
that people need to really chat GPT that or learn
or take a class, because I've gotten the most ridiculous
requests or expressions of interest to be employed by me.
(14:54):
So she handed a resume, It had a cover letter,
it was spelled Wright. I was like, Wow, you've checked
a lot of boxes, but I don't need an esthetician
right now. So long story short, when the time came,
I reached out to her. We had a great conversation
and she's now a part of the team and doing
a majority of the facials, micro needling, derma planning in
the Penn Township location.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
All right, so what are some of your plans for
twenty twenty six and beyond.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
So I really want to focus more on the wellness aspect,
so we started doing I really honestly didn't even want
to do fillers, but after we opened about a month
in Greensburg, people were walking around and requesting it, so
we brought it on. But this year was really about
injectables and the aesthetics and kind of dialing in our
skincare and what is going to work and get the
(15:38):
best results. So I really want to get into wellness.
So we're going to do wellness Wednesdays starting in Q
one twenty six. Through all of these networking opportunities and
just general, you know, just randomly meeting people and people
referring word of mouth. I met some great influencers that
don't understand how awesome they are and going to help
(16:01):
them kind of explore their passions and do some small
group fitness classes. Katie, my injector, really wants to get
into health and wellness. And we now have the ability
to draw labs on site, so we can do like
allergy testing or any kind of labs out of pocket,
so you don't have to go to your standard doctor's
(16:21):
office or an outpatient center and have your lab drawn.
You can do it in the comfort of our cozy
space and pen township.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
It's too bad you don't aspire to do a lot
of things on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I know, I really want to get basket weaving down,
but I just can't find the time.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Time geez, you know. And if somebody wants to find you, where,
where's the best place to start?
Speaker 3 (16:41):
So Instagram is a great place on there. You'll find
all the links in a link tree somewhere. But it's
MPWR esthetics A E S T H E T I
C S and that is also the website and Power
Aesthetics dot com. Yeah, I'll send a carrier pigeon whatever.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Brandon from Empower Aesthetics and Wellness and a CEO you
Should Know, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Thank you, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
This has been the CEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's
commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank
you so much for listening.
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